Mavenlink

Should You Hire or Contract Your Marketing Department?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:22:00 +0200

Determining the right marketing needs for your organization requires a balance of different considerations: size, cost, and tacit industry knowledge. This is why it is often a difficult decision for marketing execs to find the precise solution for their department. Should you hire employees and bring them in-house, or use a specialized, independent workforce?

According to a Harvard Business Review article, 53% of surveyed marketing execs plan to outsource their marketing, but is it the right thing to do for you or your business? To discover whether it's better to hire a full-time, in-house marketing team or to contract those tasks to another firm, follow the chart above.

Feel free to embed this infographic on your site as well.

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Did your company hire or contract your marketing department? Or are you part the marketing department? Let us know your thought process when hiring or marketing your servics.

7 Google Docs Tips & Tricks You Should Know

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:33:00 +0200

Remember the good ol' days of Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003? Back then, the usual routine of handling word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and CSV reports was very inefficient and hard to track. Collaboration and real time document management was considered theoretically impossible and enterprises had to spend a lot of time, effort, and man hours in creating and managing office documents.

Google Docs and Google Apps has completely changed all this. Businesses or enterprises these days are more dependant on cloud office suites for managing document or spreadsheets, largely because of two reasons:

A cloud based office suite is completely flexible in terms of sharing and management. You don’t have to worry about storage and neither you have to worry about loss of data. All the documents are stored in your Google Docs account and can be accessed from any computer or mobile device, as long as it is connected to the Internet.
The communication barrier is largely reduced, thanks to the built in sharing and collaborative features. No back and forth emailing, no attachment handling, just a few clicks and your document can be shared with a group of people or collaborators.

The best thing regrading Google Docs is its openness towards a wide variety of third party apps (such as our Mavenlink and Google Docs integration) which bring unique functionality to the system. Depending on your needs, you can customize Google Docs to work the way you really want, given below is a list of services which can be used to leverage the true potential of Google Docs:

1. Google Cloud Connect - Integrate Google Docs In Microsoft Office

Compared to a cloud office application, many people have an inclination towards desktop office suites e.g Microsoft Office, Open Office etc. If you’re the type of person who prefers Microsoft Office and needs a simple way to “store” or “backup” the current document in Google Docs, try the Google cloud connect plugin. This is a brilliant utility which can upload and sync a document to your Google Docs account from the very familiar MS-Office UI. No manual uploads required.

Additionally, this office plugin provides collaborative editing of Google Docs documents,right from the Microsoft Office interface.You can share, backup, and simultaneously edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents with coworkers.

2. Download All Your Google Docs Documents in One Click

Do you have a whole bunch of documents stored in your Google Docs account and you want an easy way to download all of them in one shot? It is a good idea to keep an offline copy of your entire Google Docs archive, this will be handy when you have no Internet connectivity e.g travelling, vacations etc.

In order to back up your Google Docs collections, go to docs.google.com, sign in to your Google account, and choose the items you want to backup. To back up all the documents, choose “All Items” in the left sidebar, select the tiny little check box next to “Title”, pull down the “more” drop down menu and choose “Download”.

Google Docs is probably the only online office program which lets you choose the output format of your documents. For example, you can convert all word documents to PDF or HTML and download the converted version, without any added effort whatsoever.

There is another simple alternative. Go to the Google Takeout page, sign in with your Google account, create a ZIP archive of your Google Docs documents and you are done.

Google Takeout will email you the download link, once your entire Google Docs archive is ready. The only catch is that unlike the regular Google Docs website, Google Takeout won’t provide any option to convert the documents to another format.

3. Use Google Docs To Create Simple Forms, Surveys Or Polls

Apart from being an online office suite for enterprises, Google Docs can be used as an excellent polling or questionnaire software. You can use Google Docs to create simple web based forms, surveys, polls and embed these forms on your website.

While there are a slew of web based polling programs available, I always prefer Google Docs for the following reasons:

Google Docs collects and stores all the form responses in an Excel spreadsheet, which makes it super easy to analyze the data. With Google Docs, you can create unlimited number of forms and store unlimited number of responses for every form, all for free.
Google Docs forms supports logic branching, so you can design IF ELSE questions depending on the response of the user. Further, you can analyze large sets of data and generate pie charts, bar graphs, and Venn diagrams from the user responses.
When users enter a response in any of your forms, Google Docs will notify you through an email message. You can hack your Google Docs form and get form data in the email message itself, so this makes sure that you won’t have to open that response sheet over and over again.

Here are a couple of tutorials which will help you get started with forms in Google Docs:

4. Save Web pages Directly into Your Google Docs Account

The send to Google Docs extension for Chrome is a great utility for the Chrome browser which allows you to save a PDF version of any web page in your Google Docs account. When you’re reading a webpage and want to archive it into a PDF ebook, just hit the extension button once. The extension will copy the current web page into your Google Docs account and will save it in PDF format, retaining all the images, Hyperlinks and other web elements.

5. Know When Changes Are Made To Your Google Docs Forms Or Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets in Google Docs are a great way to collect and store large sets of data. If you are a regular web worker and want an easy to use tool which can store contact details of customers, email addresses of leads, I would suggest using Google Docs for two reasons.

First, Google Docs lets you store unlimited amount of data without any limitations whatsoever. Second, since Google Docs comes with collaborative features, you can allow other users to fill data into your Google Docs forms. This can range from a simple contact form to a survey poll, depending upon your requirements.

But how do you know when other shared users enter data in your Google Docs forms or spreadsheets? Pretty easy, just pull down the “Tools” menu, choose “Notification rules” and set up your desired notification settings.

You can choose to get Email notification, when any of the following actions happen:

When changes are made to your Google Docs forms. This includes addition of new data or a new update of an old data set.
When changes are made to a particular sheet of an Excel spreadsheet.
When a particular cell range is updated or values are changed.
When a user submits a form
When new collaborators are added or removed.

6. Use Google Docs To Translate Office Documents To Another Language

If you have clients whose native language is not the same as yours, you can use Google Docs to translate documents and create a translated copy of a document on your own Google Docs account. When your foreign counterpart shares a document written in classical Chinese, simply pull down the “Tools” menu and click on “Translate document”. Next, choose a target language and you’re done.

Google Docs will translate the entire document to your target language using the excellent Google Translate API. Both the copies of the document (original as well as translated) will be saved in your Google Docs account.

7. Revision History

This one is a real lifesaver for anyone who has to frequently edit his documents and needs a simple way to revert the document to an older version. Google Docs automatically creates a log of all the document revisions (regardless of how many users are collaborating on any given document). The owner of the document can quickly see an earlier copy from File > See revision history. Following is an example screenshot of the revision history of this article, written entirely in Google Docs:

To restore the document to an earlier version, hover the mouse cursor over a desired revision log and hit “Restore”. Google Docs automatically highlights the changes of an earlier revision so you will have no problems in comparing the changes.

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What Google Docs tips or tricks do you take advantage of? Help us build on our list.

Centralized Workflow & Gaming Development with Neptum Studios

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:34:00 +0200

”Mavenlink helps us keep the focus on our work rather than organizing files and managing the communication.” - Marcelo Takeo Tomita, Manager at Neptum Studios

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Marcelo Takeo Tomita - Neptum Studios is a small indie games development company whose workers all do their jobs at their home offices, while meeting in person from time to time to gather all the work done in order to create a full featured game version.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Marcelo - Like many others, we found Mavenlink in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Marcelo - Mavenlink has centralized our activities and helped us keep track of each others progress through the process of game development.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Marcelo - We use Mavenlink to work together with Google Calendar and Google Docs integration. Every activity and task has its deadline recorded in our shared calendar and every delivery is kept secure in our shared docs in a specific collection for each project.

We centralize the files, contacts and special dates through the entire team without much effort.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Marcelo - Mavenlink created a wonderful tool to organize our work. As we're growing in size, I feel like Mavenlink helps us keep the focus on our work rather than organizing files and managing the communication among all of us, even though we are physically far from each other.

Neptum Studios can be found on Facebook, and you can contact Neptum Studios directly on their website.

Watch Tutorials & YouTube Videos with Captions

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:51:00 +0200

As Mavenlink continues to grow (we have over 200,000 users!), there have been requests lately to be able to watch Mavenlink Tutorials with captions. This is extremely beneficial for people with hearing difficulties, and for people who speak English as their second language or do not speak English. At least those have been the most common reasons, and not because they would rather not hear my voice.

The captions functionality is available on most of the tutorial videos hosted on the Mavenlink YouTube Channel, but I'd like to point out that Google and YouTube still list this feature as being in the beta phase.

To enable the captions, simply click the "CC" button on the bottom right of the video player (you can see this below in the screenshot of our Mavenlink and Quickbooks Integration video). From there, you can modify the settings, translate the captions, or turn the captions back off.

I hope this helps. Let us know if you have any questions or requests below.

5 Steps for Managing a Remote Project Team

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:26:00 +0200

A remote team is a common occurrence today, as we visualized in our infographic about the new independent workforce and the rise of the new economy.

In years past, project teams were assembled within individual companies. Employees at firms would work together within the walls of the physical business location to complete a project. Partners from other firms would often visit the offices of the business heading up the project.

Much was done in-person.

Today, the reality of modern business structure requires teams to operate remotely. This process involves coordinating tasks, responsibilities and schedules with many variables. For the modern project manager, this can be a difficult task.

But in order for projects to be successful, project managers need to adapt and have the necessary skills to manage remote teams.

Here are 5 actionable steps you can take, as a project manager of remote teams, to ensure timelines are met, goals are achieved, and success is reported to the appropriate business leaders.

5 Steps for Remote Project Team Success

The role of the project manager has always been important, but the demand for agile project managers is growing in importance in today’s business world. Team members work from home. They can work from various locations all over the USA and the entire globe with each person working in different timezones.

Therefore, it’s necessary to have a plan in place for each project you manage. The plan will be what helps you successfully manage each project making sure the leaders at your business are impressed.

1. Project Overview and Timeline

The kickoff meeting is something that happens with teams that work together in the same physical location. For remote teams, this is not possible. You can do this one of two ways. First, you can gather everyone for a conference call or a video conference with sometime like Google+ Hangouts for your remote team. There are several great free audio and web conferencing tools. Second, you can send an initial correspondence via email or online project management software that describes the entire project overview and the timelines.

A good project overview will include the reason the project is being done, goals and objectives, and the role of each of the team members. A schedule or timeline is also included usually broken down into individual due dates.

Once presented, it’s good to ask for feedback from the team to see if there are concerns about the timeline and tasks. Changes should be made if appropriate and the project begins.

There are tools that can make a project schedule more efficient and effective. A calendar, such as the Google Calendar, complete with reminders for each team member can make sure each person understands that deadlines must be met with quality work.

When a project begins, it’s easy to view it as one big project. But in reality, each large project is made of smaller projects with each having its own deadline. Breaking projects into mini projects allows people to better understand the schedule and when they are responsible for delivering work.

2. Responsibilities and Roles

With any project it’s important to define roles. An extra step that is important, especially with remote teams, is to make sure each team member understands how the work of others is impacted by their work. Due dates are important and when people are working on their own they might need the motivation to understand that they can’t wait until the entire project is due to complete certain steps.

A common occurrence in a website design project is making sure the designer has all content for the website. This usually needs to be complete before the designer can even begin. So if you have a remote team working on your website project, you will want to make sure the copywriter understands that their deadline will be early in the overall project timeline.

With a remote team, it is important to define responsibilities so each team member understands what is expected of them. When people are not working together in the same office there might be a need for the leader to communicate deadlines more often to ensure the project can move without delay.

3. Progress Updates

It’s common at businesses for their to be periodic progress reports or visual progress in a project tracker. Within office buildings, this could be a weekly or monthly meeting where every member of a department gives an update on what they’re working on. It is also a time to ask for feedback from others or to schedule a time with others to go over timelines and how one person’s work might affect the timeline of another person’s work.

For teams working remotely and online, the progress update can be just as important.

For communication, it should be established at the beginning of the project how team members should communicate. With project management tools, there are often messaging systems where members can comment on the project feed. Notifications can be set to make sure each team member receives an email confirming a new message is available or a new task has been assigned.

Schedule regular progress updates where each person can check in with progress. This could be a report to the entire team or to the project manager.

4. Project Conclusion

Conclusion of the project is often what each member of the team looks forward to. When the project is complete, the manager will need to close the project and make sure each requirement has been met.

As the manager, you’ll want to confirm with each team member that all files or deliverables have been provided. You’ll want to make sure everything is in the correct format for delivery to the business leaders.

Your next job will be to organize the material into a presentation or your deliverable to the leaders of the business.

5. Reporting to Business Leaders and Team Members

The final step in the process is to present the project to your business leaders. Once the project is accepted as complete and satisfactory, it is a good idea to send the final message to the remote team.

It is important to thank each person for their hard work on the project. It is also a good idea to discuss how the work will be used by the leaders to once again show that the had work on the project will go to improving the company or that it will contribute to the bottom line.

Feedback for the work is important. It’s important that each person on the remote team feels like they are in fact part of the team. Communicating the feedback from the leaders and the role the person played in the business makes them feel ownership of their work and makes them more willing to contribute to the best of their ability on the next project.

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What has helped you with remote team project management? Any specific case studies or tips?

Cutting Emails in Half with Jennifer Tewell Consulting

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:50:00 +0200

”Mavenlink has cut our emails to each other in the Jennifer Tewell Consulting team by more than half.” - Jennifer Tewell, Chief Social Entrepreneur of Jennifer Tewell Consulting

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Jennifer Tewell - Jennifer Tewell Consulting is a consulting firm supporting nonprofit organizations with development and communications.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Jennifer - We utilize Google Apps and wanted to find online project management software that integrated with Google. We found Mavenlink in the Google Apps Markteplace as Mavenlink was the highest rated application so we decided to start there.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Jennifer - We work on many different projects for each of our clients. Keeping track of deadlines, goals, and deliverables was almost unmanageable. Enter Mavenlink.

We now have a single space where all team members can enter documents, status, projects with due dates and milestones. Additionally, we invite our clients into the project workspace so they can see where we are on any given project. It's cut our emails to each other in the Jennifer Tewell Consulting team by more than half.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Jennifer - We use Google mail, Google Calendar and Google Docs. The Mavenlink and Google Apps integration allows us to seamlessly connect all three pieces without any hassle.

Jennifer Tewell Consulting can be found on Facebook and Twitter, and you can contact Jennifer Tewell Consulting directly on their website.

Benefits of Google Apps for Business

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:01:00 +0200

At Mavenlink, we've been using Google Apps for Business for several years, and recommend it to everybody we work with and all of our customers. Many of our customers are Google Apps users so we wanted to explain some of the benefits of using Google Apps for Business.

Has your company “Gone Google?”

“Gone Google” was a campaign launched in 2011 to show how Google Apps can help businesses with facts calculated on the size of your company, and how you can save money and time. In addition to businesses, many schools and non-profits are taking advantage of Google Apps. They have a free version available for qualified organizations or small business that need less than 10 users.

Google Apps allows you to establish a personalized domain name with email addresses set as @yourdomain.com instead of @gmail.com extremely quickly (let us know if you need any help with this). You will work within the Gmail interface to manage your emails, which is helpful as many are already familiar with this. Possibly the biggest advantage of going Google is that you have access to all of your favorite Google tools to help optimize productivity, communication, and collaboration, including Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Contacts, and Google Sites. In addition, you have the ability to integrate those features with many great products in the Google Apps Marketplace, just as you likely have done with Mavenlink.

Benefits of Google Apps for Business

What are the benefits of using Google Apps for Business? For $50 per user per year (less than $5 per month!), you get all that’s described above and more:

Create an unlimited number of user accounts and each user gets 25GB of email space instead of 7GB.
Get mobile access to your Google Apps email, calendar, and instant messaging wherever you are.
Receive 24/7 support from Google, including phone, email, and self-service online support. As a company that prides itself on customer support, this was key in our transition and in our recommendations to others.
If your employees are comfortable with Microsoft Office, let them access their email, calendar, and contacts in that format by using Google Apps Sync for Outlook. The only difference is that in the background, they’ll be using Google Apps instead of the Microsoft Exchange Server.
Google guarantees that Google Apps and everything you store in its cloud will be available to you 99.9% of the time. That means only 10-15 minutes of downtime (seconds at a time) as opposed to the average 60-150 minutes of planned and unplanned downtime typical of on-site email servers.
Brand the entire look and feel. You can customize user accounts, logos and colors of the whole experience.

Google Apps Tutorial

Still have some questions? Check out this overview video provided by the Google Apps team.

Test out Google Apps for Business for free for 30 days right now!

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Has your company "Gone Google" with Google Apps? If so, how have you benefited most from it?

Project Management with Google Apps & Quickbooks Integration with Destiny Technologies

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:46:00 +0200

”Mavenlink solved our need for Google Apps integration and Quickbooks integration with our online project management software, plus easy email-to-task attachment.” - Gabriel Marguglio, President of Destiny Technologies

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Gabriel Marguglio - Destiny Technologies is a website design and internet marketing (SEO & SEM) company. We have five people in our office, plus a network of 20 people around us working on different projects and selling our products here in Florida and in the Washington, DC metro area.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Gabriel - We were looking for a better option (we were using Basecamp) and decided to search for “project manager google integration” and your Mavenlink page on Google came up.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Gabriel - Mavenlink solved our need for Google Apps integration and Quickbooks integration with our online project management software, plus easy email-to-task attachment. It has been easy to use and my people want to use it. Basecamp was too complicated and hard to use for our team so we switched.

Most importantly, now we have time, time, and more time!

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Gabriel - To keep it short, they love Mavenlink.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Gabriel - Again, I love it. I like to be able to see Google Tasks in my Google Calendar, and see the project email addresses in Gmail. I would like if I could set a task as ‘done’ from Google Calendar and would like to integrate the Google Contacts into some kind of customer database in Mavenlink, such as Highrise has, but integrated into Google Apps.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Gabriel - Yes, I sent a request for support with an issue and in less than two days you fixed it! That was awesome. Thank you!

Destiny Technologies can be found on Facebook and Twitter, and you can contact Destiny Technologies directly on their website.

Google+ Hangouts for Remote Teams & Freelancers

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:43:00 +0200

Working with remote team members and freelancers can be a challenging task, especially if your team is fairly big and spread throughout the world. The most problematic part of managing a virtual team is choosing the right communication platform and eradicating technical barriers from the usual work flow.

There are a slew of remote desktop and video conferencing apps, which allows multiple people can join and have a conversation. As we obviously strongly believe, online collaboration has changed its form and is not limited to only voice and video conferences. Members working under a remote umbrella, have to frequently deal with videos, documents, Google Docs, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, code segments, screen mockups and so forth.

Not many freelancers are aware of the fact that Google Plus Hangouts can be used as an online platform for remote video collaboration. The best thing about Google Plus is that it is completely free, needs no software installations and works from any computer, as long as you have a working Internet connection.

Screen Sharing

Google Plus hangouts have recently added Google Hangouts with Extras, such as the ability to share your computer screen with fellow team members. With just one mouse click, all the members participating in the hangout can see whats happening in your screen. You are free to choose whether you want to share the entire screen, a small portion of it or just a specific application window.

Here is how the screen sharing user interface of Google Plus Hangouts look like:

This feature is very useful when a member of your team needs assistance in fixing something or he needs the opinion of other team members about a design he created. With screen sharing, there is no need to take screenshots and transfer files to each and every team member, over and over again. One limitation of screen sharing feature in Hangouts is that remote users are not allowed to take control of the host computer. Hopefully, Google will include this in a future upgrade.

Seamless Collaboration of Google Docs Documents

This is one of those “Aha” moments when everything is built right inside the application and you don’t have to worry about sending files in order to discuss them via video conferencing.

Collaborating on files, PDF’s, PowerPoint presentations and documents with video chat and remote members has never been easier. If you use Google Docs as your online office application, you can share any document with remote members and collaborate over it in real time. That is a huge reason why we have integrated Mavenlink with Google Apps and Google Docs. Given the fact that Google Docs itself supports real time online collaboration makes the entire process smooth and preserves the focus.

To collaborate on a shared document stored in your Google Docs account, click the little “+” at the top of the left sidebar and select the document. Prior to collaboration, you must grant all the necessary permissions (view only / view and edit) from your Google Docs account.

Real-time document collaboration is probably the biggest edge of Google Plus over its video conferencing competitors (e.g. Skype, iChat) and Hangouts offers a perfect environment for freelancers and team members to work on a centralized environment while speaking to each other.

On The Move?

We’re often too busy and there are situations when you might not make the remote meeting in time. One advantage of using Google Plus hangouts for remote conferences is that team members can join the discussion from their Android or iPhone device. This makes Hangouts a must use tool for people who travel a lot and need a simple group chat app that works from a computer as well as from their Android or iOS device.

When you are hanging out with someone who is using a computer, you won’t be able to view shared documents or participate in a screen sharing session. However, you can talk with all the members of the team and use your smartphone’s front camera to broadcast yourself.

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Have you used Google Hangouts for video collaboration with remote teams or freelancers? If so, what tips or stories do you have to share?

Also, come talk to me on Google Plus!

The New Independent Workforce

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:20:00 +0200

The Growing Workforce:

Many workers today do not work for organizations on a permanent basis. These independent workers, both solopreneurs and independent service firms, known collectively as the contingent workforce, are present in many different fields. But who are they? We examine this unique section of the labor force.

From 1995 through 2012, the total workforce of contingent workers (self-employed and solopreneurs) grew by an estimated 4.3 million workers. Despite economic downturn, the overall contingent workforce has held steady and is projected to grow to 40 percent, or 64.9 million by 2020.

Who Did Solopreneurs Hire in 2010?

And despite the economic recession, this independent workforce holds strong, bringing in more workers and providing jobs. In 2010, 27% of those surveyed in the Freelancers Union Annual Worker Survey had hired other workers.

Who is this New Independent Workforce?

This contingent workforce is comprised of small and mid-sized independent firms, agency temporary workers, contract company workers, direct-hire temps, independent contractors, on-call workers, self-employed workers, and standard part-time workers, all working in a variety of fields, including:

24% writers
12% copywriters
11% designers
9% translators
7% web developers
6% editors
4% marketing
4% business
3% software developers
2% assistants
24% other

Across all of the professions, 66% work full time, 16% part-time (with a second full time job), 13% part-time, 5% full time (with a second full time job). Instead of driving to the office, 90.2% of them commute every day by walking to another room in their house, working inside a home office.

Why Freelance?

While lay-offs and downsizing influence the independent workforce, they are not the primary reason why this workforce continues to grow. There are many reasons given for working independently, including:

25.9% Flexibility of Schedule
21.4% Follow my Passions
15.7% To be my own Boss
14.1% Freelance was not originally planned, fell into it
13.8% Lay-Off or Downsizing
9.1% Supplemental Income

The Business of Contingence

The contingent workforce continues to strive as more and more businesses utilize this segment. 90% of firms have used freelance or contracted talent. This trend is only expected to continue as a 2010 Economist Intelligence Unit report found 61% of senior executives expect a growing proportion of functions to be outsourced to this labor force. Tech giant Oracle predicts use of this contingent workforce will increase by 40% over the next 10 years.

And spending on this workforce is only growing, expanding to incorporate small independent firms as well as solopreneurs. American businesses spend more than $425 billion per year on contingent labor, according to a 2009 Staffing Industry Analysts Contingent Workforce Estimate.

The strong contingent workforce is evidence of a shift in current employment models. Businesses are pulling resources from the labor force when and where needed, creating a new, more fluid dynamic in the overall workforce.

Embed this infographic on your site.

Real Estate Project Management with the GoodLife Team

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:26:00 +0200

”The Mavenlink and Google Apps integration means that our team can save time by not trying to work in a project management tool that is an island from their other commitments.” - Jack Miller, Chief Technology Officer at GoodLife Team

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Jack Miller - The GoodLife Team is a residential real estate company in Austin, Texas. We've been recognized nationally for our use of technology in real estate, and were recently profiled by Apple as an iPad Power User in small business. We are regularly recognized by our customers as having a superior level of service with a high-tech approach to marketing and selling homes in Austin.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Jack - We reviewed 4 different online project management applications for the company, and Mavenlink stood out. The feature set was a great fit for us, and the full integration with Google Apps was a huge plus.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Jack - Many of our projects are the same type of project, so the ability for us to template the projects for re-use is a huge time saver. Also, we do use a lot of external contractors (web designers, graphics designers, software developers) so the ability to track the cost or our projects while we're executing - instead of waiting for all the invoices to roll it - is a huge pain point we're solving.

Finally, the ability to see all deliverables and tasks across the team in a comprehensive manner is a life saver. The only think I wish we could see more effectively is time estimation and resource utilization - it's hard to tell accurately when our team is "fully booked" and we need to move deliverables around.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Jack - They're impressed with how we organized we are becoming with Mavenlink.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Jack - We use Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. The Google Apps integration means that our team can save time by not trying to work in a project management tool that is an island from their other commitments, which are usually on their calendar.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Jack - One of the best things for us is being able to track our staff time on projects that we do recurrently so we can develop real cost estimates on recurring projects that we do, like marketing a home for sale. Having the templates and time tracking together lets us develop our process so it is fast and efficient.

The GoodLife Team can be found on Facebook and Twitter, and you can contact GoodLife Team directly on their website. They are located at 1114 E. Cesar Chavez, Austin, TX 78702.

Google Docs & Efficiency with A Cohen Marketing & Public Relations

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:56:00 +0200

”You cannot beat the price point for the level of services provided and the interactivity with Google Docs is honestly the greatest.” - Anne Cohen, Principal at A Cohen Marketing & Public Relations

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Anne Cohen - A Cohen Marketing & Public Relations provides marketing, public relations and media placement services exclusively to plastic surgeons, cosmetic dentists & dermatologists, and medical spas. No butchers, bakers or candlestick makers.

We provide a full menu of services including branding, design work such as advertising creatives, busingess cards, logos, e-blasts, e-newsletters, social media including Facebook, Twitter and blogging, and a plethora of other services needed by this special niche market.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Anne - We got lucky. We had files everywhere, Google Docs, Dropbox, emails going back and forth, and constant confusion about the status of any given project, as we had no single place where we could track tasks and easily coordinate between one another. There are eight of us on our team. We just happened to find Mavenlink when we were searching all over the internet for a reliable online project management solution.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Anne - Efficiency! Our entire team’s efficiency has greatly increased. As an administrator, I can see who has done what, what's needed, who's behind, where we are with each task, etc. It really makes my life much easier and does the same for my employees as well.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Anne - We all use the Google Apps for Small Business. Mavenlink is great for us because we can easily link our items from Mavenlink projects to and from Google Docs.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Anne - We love, love, love Mavenlink! You cannot beat the price point for the level of services provided and the interactivity with Google Docs is honestly the greatest.

Anne Cohen can be found on LinkedIn and you can contact A Cohen Marketing & Public Relations directly on their website.

Information Centralization with Unicer

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:26:00 +0200

”Mavenlink provides us organization, centralization, and a track record for all projects being developed.” - Rui Fidalgo Miguel Mota, New Media Manager at Unicer

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Rui Fidalgo Miguel Mota - Unicer is a Portuguese beverage company in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry with a vast product portfolio, ranging from beer to water. More information about our company and all its brands can be seen on our Unicer website.

Super Bock is our biggest brand. Born in 1927, this Portuguese beer is one of the two main players of the Portuguese beer market.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Rui - We did a project with an agency that used Mavenlink and we used it as a working tool during the development stage. We have used them ever since.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Rui - Mainly, it solved the lack of information centralization. Working in the new media department and with Unicer being a company with so many brands, it was a challenge to keep track of all the ongoing projects. Mavenlink provides us organization, centralization, and a track record for all projects being developed by our digital agency and which we have the responsibility to manage..

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Rui - Keep up the good work and continue following the many suggestions given by the users of the tool, since they will certainly help you improve more and more each day.

Quickbooks Integration

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:28:00 +0200

This video shows off the integration of Mavenlink with Intuit's Quickbooks. Mavenlink's online project management and collaboration suite allows you to post messages, share files with project teams, and manage all tasks, which is now completely integrated with Quickbooks. Syncing Mavenlink and Quickbooks is a simple one-click process in your Account settings.

INTEGRATE WITH QUICKBOOKS

When you have integrated, you can jump right back into any Mavenlink project, or start a new project from scratch or a Quickbooks estimate. Click "View your estimates" to select the appropriate estimate, and you can change any of the necessary fields before finalizing the project.

Once in the project, you can go to the Quickbooks settings to edit any necessary information and see how Mavenlink has pre-mapped the products & services with Mavenlink tasks, and customers or clients based on the estimate.

From here, you can track time and expense, approve the time, then see everything synced in Quickbooks.

The Quickbooks integration only works with paid plans so if you're currently on a free plan, Upgrade Here. Seamlessly sync your online project management and accounting software to centralize all project activity.

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Have you integrated Mavenlink with Quickbooks? If so, what do you think? We love feedback and great use cases.

Other Integrations:

Quickbooks Accounting with Core Performance Consulting

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:34:00 +0200

Last week, I sat down with Peter Cullen, a Quickbooks Pro Advisor and the Principal of Core Performance Consulting.

Sean Crafts (Co-founder of Mavenlink): Peter, thanks again for taking the time to talk. First, please explain your company.

Peter Cullen: Core Performance Consulting (Visionary Accounting for your business) serves our Customers as follows: we set-up and implement your QuickBooks software as a Real-Time financial management system. We teach you how to properly maintain your financial records, we work with your accounting staff, and show you how to read and understand your financial statements. The goal is to advise you to better manage your Company, take advantage of opportunities you may have and assist your decision making so you will achieve your personal and financial goals.

We are confident that our business finance, tax planning and performance improvement ideas will guide you to be more productive and profitable in your business and personal lives. You will also find that our passion is to make real the promise of managing your Company with "Real-Time Information" using the latest in online accounting and financial management technology tools available to business owners.

S: Let's set the table a bit. Where was your business in terms of Online Project Management or Collaboration tools when you first found Mavenlink?

P: I had already made the transition from being a very small accounting firm that is stuck within our four walls. I understood the value of partnering with other firms and individuals to leverage someone else’s talents that I didn’t have, and then bringing that as a package offering to a customer and saying “here’s the skill sets we have, here is what we can do”. And then in order to Project Management the whole thing, I was doing my work inside this big spreadsheet, and every week I would update the spreadsheet, and then send it to clients, subcontractors and team members so they knew what the heck was going on. Because as anyone who has ever consulted before knows, you won't get paid until the client can see the value that you’ve delivered. It was not an easy process to keep up to date, and it certainly was not user friendly.

S: So how are things going now that you and your team have access to Mavenlink?

P: I can actually look at a system implementation project in a 360 degree view. I can see all of the people that information directly with my client. They can view it whenever they want to. I don’t have to publish anything. Therefore it makes it easier for us to keep track of what’s going on..

S: Did you have any hesitation around bringing Client’s into the workspaces.

P: You know, I did a little bit., but Clients know trust is huge. When you are implementing software into another company, whether it is accounting software, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, they are making a huge leap that you know what needs to be done. As part of building that trust and maintaining that trust during the lifetime of the project, they want to be kept informed about important things that are happening during the lifecycle of that project. And that’s what Mavenlink does. It allows them at their convenience, without any prescribed time or meeting, take a look to see exactly where things stand.

S: So how did it go when you brought your Client's into Mavenlink?

P:The clients that we've used it with so far have universally said "This makes it easier for me to see what' happening, so I don't have to email you, or pester you, or play that game by witholding the check because I'm confused." I'm avoiding that whole dance after sending my invoices that usually starts with "Alright, what did you do for me?"

S: That's a key value proposition that I think needs to be highlighted. It is something that we constantly are trying to capture and synthesize into a short, memorable statement.

P: You end up doing all kinds of work around developing the initial relationship and opportunity, then back and forth as the work is in progress to build up partnership and collaboration, but then if you don’t have a way to manage the information about the project and update the project, the trust starts to erode.

S: What do you see happening today in the Services industry, and specifically in the Quickbooks software implementation industry?

P: There is an evolution in the services and Quickbooks software implementation world. The very same thing that is being preached to consulting firm is exactly what Mavenlink does. Glad that Mavenlink integrates with Quickbooks. You have to look beyond your four walls to find talent, you have to have a platform to share information and keep everyone on the same page, and you have to be able to communicate with your customer in a way that makes it easy for them to view it.

Looking specifically in the Quickbooks consulting and Quickbooks implementation area, many of us have extensive experience in delivering projects, but limited experience in collaborating effectively with our peers. We need somebody who can show us how this works. Show us why we should do it. Show us how to collaborate.

S: Do you see Mavenlink fitting into this new world of consulting?

P: Yes of course. It’s taken out so much of the leg work we used to do. I used to push all kinds of stuff out to tons of people through an email. I used to hate doing that. Now it is super easy to invite people in to Mavenlink, quickly show them everything they need to do, and where things stand.

Also, it's great that the system just works. For a business that works in the context of projects, Mavenlink syncs up with the way their mind works anyway. I have “x” number of projects this week, and this is what I need to work on. I need to target a couple of key things and ride herd on them to get done. Also, everyone is set up appropriately in the projects they need to see, you setup configurations and permissions one time, and then you never have to worry about who has access to what again.

S: How would you describe Mavenlink?

P: Here are some of the thoughts I would try to get across. This is a tool that we use to manage software implementation projects. We manage the overall scope of the project, the tasks, who's assigned to the projects, what they have to get done, the time frames they have to work within, and then sharing all of this appropriately with the client. The integration with Quickbooks is a really cool selling point. It is difficult to have two separate databases that are always in flux. Mapping them and getting them to marry appropriately is key.

S: Anything else I missed?

P: We didn’t even talk about invoices. Most clients want a detailed invoice. Why not do all of that in Mavenlink? If you manage your project appropriate, everything a client would want to see from a detailed invoice perspective is staring right at them. All of your tasks and to-do's tied to your conversations. All of the time tracking and expenses you logged tied to the work you were doing. And the client sees it all. Sync the data to Quickbooks, and your accountant sees everything they need as well. It is beautiful.

Google Apps Project Management with CSE Web Solutions

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0200

”The Paypal Business Rate savings has been huge, and has basically allowed us to pay for Mavenlink just by signing up.” - Dan DeRoeck, Founder & CEO at CSE Web Solutions

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Dan DeRoeck - CSE Web Solutions is a complete web solutions firm located in Michigan that assists small and medium size businesses navigate the Internet and leverage good web design and effective marketing to improve their bottom line. We provide full hosting services, website and blog design, Search Engine Optimization, Mobile and SMS Marketing, Google Apps for Business, and more.

We understand the time needed to fully engage customers on the Internet is extensive, and we are there to help them every step of the way.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Dan - We found Mavenlink through Google Apps Marketplace.

After working with several online project management tools that were less than adequate, we found Mavenlink to have successfully negotiated many of the shortcomings the others possessed.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Dan - One of the biggest challenges we face is collaboration of goals and projects. Many of our employees work remotely and we wanted a way to keep everyone on the same page through an integrated solution.

Another great feature of Mavenlink is the ability to track time integrated with invoicing for every project, a real time saver and allows us to show value for our clients. The Paypal Business Rate savings has been huge, and has basically allowed us to pay for Mavenlink just by signing up.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Dan - We use Google Apps extensively because it only makes sense. Cloud-based solutions are the only way to truly gain an advantage in today's fast-paced markets, and Google is and will remain, the industry leader. Mavenlink has been able to successfully integrate with Google Apps which is a huge plus for us. We use Mavenlink with Google Apps for many things, including Google Docs sharing, Calendar, and Tasks.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Dan - If quality and great support is something important to you in a software product, you owe it to yourself to try Mavenlink.

CSE Web Solutions can be found on Facebook or Twitter, and you can contact CSE Web Solutions directly on their website.

Google Apps & Real Estate Project Management with REVAlution

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:30:00 +0200

”The major pain point that Mavenlink has solved is knowing what tasks I need to take care today, tomorrow, etc. It's very easy to set up a project, and once set up I never have to worry about forgetting a key milestone, task or deliverable.” - Olivia O'Toole, Owner & Principal at REVAlution

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Olivia O'Toole - I am an independent Real Estate Virtual Assistant, providing administrative and marketing support for listings and sales at my company, REVAlution. I work with multiple agents, and so I am generally handling at least a dozen listings (or more) and anywhere from 5-15 transactions (accepted offer to close of sale) at one time.

This allows the agents to dedicate their time to growing their business, instead of spending all of their time on data entry and paperwork, and it provides all the parties in a transaction with a dedicated point of contact throughout, minimizing confusing and ensuring important dates and details don't get missed.

I have one person who works with me as a listing specialist and admin support. She helps me get new projects set up in Mavenlink for project tracking, and ensures that new listings get all the exposure necessary.

I've been in business since the beginning of 2011, and in that time I've gone from working just a few hours a week to working four full days a week (and some evenings/weekends). I do this around my three kids, ages 2,4 and 6. :)

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Olivia - Over the course of the last year, I have gone through a lot of project management and transaction management software. Some of it was real estate specific and some not, but in each case I found that it was either too specific to serve my needs (most real estate software is aimed at agents, not transaction coordinators for multiple agents) or far too complex. Also, I could not find one that integrated with Google the way I wanted it to, which was frustrating.

Finally, when looking through the Google Apps Marketplace, I came across Mavenlink. Just from reading the description I was optimistic, but I often was when I first started using a program. But once I got into it and started using it, I was even more excited. It is simple enough to use without being confusing, integrates dates and tasks right to my Google Apps products, and allows me to keep my clients in the loop every step of the way.

For the first time since starting this business, I feel like I am spending more time getting things done than figuring out what I have to do to. It's a good feeling.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Olivia - The major pain point that Mavenlink has solved is knowing what tasks I need to take care today, tomorrow, etc. It's very easy to set up a project, and once set up I never have to worry about forgetting a key milestone, task or deliverable. Being able to sync to my task list is fantastic!

The other pain point is keeping my clients up to date regarding what is happening with their transactions - this way they can see for themselves, and leave notes for me.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Olivia - I use GMail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Tasks, and Google Voice. With Mavenlink, my Google Task list is populated and I can pull up all my to-dos on my Google Calendar. Also, inviting clients in is easier with Mavenlink because it already has all of my Google Contacts.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Olivia - I'd say the major thing I would like Mavenlink to offer is a way to preset task dates in relation to milestones. That would allow me to just enter a few key dates, and have the tasks automatically assigned to the appropriate dates. Having to put in each date does add some time to the process of starting a new project.

REVAlution can be found on Facebook and you can contact REVAlution directly on their website.

Legal Project Management with Jurewitz Law Group

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:14:00 +0200

”2011 was, by far, the best year we've ever had, and I attribute part of that to how successful Mavenlink has been for us. We handled more claims, won more cases, and got our clients more money!” - Ross Jurewitz, Founder & Personal Injury Attorney at Jurewitz Law Group

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Ross Jurewitz - Founded in 2000, the Jurewitz Law Group aims to help people seriously injured get the help and compensation they deserve from insurance companies that will do everything to deny, delay, and diminish their claims.

Our San Diego personal injury law firm represents clients in a variety of personal injury cases, including auto accidents, motorcycle accidents, slip and falls, bicycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, dog bites, and even Social Security disability.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Ross - We found Mavenlink through online project management in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Our law firm takes pride in being one of the most technologically advanced personal injury law firms out there, and we are constantly innovating in order to improve client experience.

So when it came to choosing the right project management tool, I swear we must have tested over a dozen other Google apps before we finally went with Mavenlink. Hands down, Mavenlink was the best.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Ross - Time, money, efficiency...everything!

2011 was, by far, the best year we've ever had, and I attribute part of that to how successful Mavenlink has been for us. We handled more claims, won more cases, and got our clients more money!

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Ross - So far, my staff and consultants love it! They use the space as a collaborative and creative venue (something that I don't see a lot of while IN the office). It certainly gives us an edge in the "boring lawyer" world.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Ross - Using Mavenlink with the Google Apps integration has helped me create and manage more projects. I mostly use it to integrate Google Calendar and Google Docs, and it has helped me get a lot more organized.

I never miss any more deadlines, or if I do, my staff holds me accountable! How's that for transparency?

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Ross - I think it is very cool that we get the opportunity to share our experience with other Mavenlink users or potential users. It makes us feel good about our decision to go with this app. Kudos to the Mavenlink staff!

The one thing I would like to see is a smart phone/tablet app. This is always the first thing that comes up with my iPhone-using staff. (They love to complain!)

Jurewitz Law Group can be found on Facebook & Twitter and you can contact Jurewitz Law Group directly on their website.

Mobile Offices & Teams with Sleepingbeagle Studios

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:54:00 +0200

”I need Mavenlink to help me meet my business goals!” - Dan Herrick, Owner & Creative Director at Sleepingbeagle Studios

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Dan Herrick - The first video project I ever created was for a my brother’s wedding. Created on a laptop on the living room coffee table, it was a labour of love. Tired from a hard day’s work, I would sit down and cut together pictures, recorded video clips from his future in-laws, as well as stories from our past. I recorded a personal voiceover on the laptop's built-in mic. It wasn't until the video played at the reception that I heard, over the people’s laughter and emotional responses, the reassuring and ever present snoring of my beagle Bailey in the background. She dutifully slept through all my hard work but still managed to contribute. I have since gone back to school, purchased equipment, and have been running a video production company full-time.

That company is Sleepingbeagle Studios. We tell stories. Your stories. We are Digital Storytelling Specialists.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Dan - I researched project management tools online. I kept coming back to Mavenlink as I found it in the Google Apps Marketplace. I tried it out free, then I decided that it wasn't too complicated, but it had a lot of great things to help me manage my projects.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Dan - My staff is mobile and so am I. We go to our clients and usually are filming on location (currently saves me $500 per month in rent; I don't need a bigger space). I needed a way to keep projects on track without having a central office. It lets me keep all documentation in one place, manage my people with a weekly meeting and email, and to track their time on each project task or deliverable.

Ask my staff: no commute of 40 kilometers per day X 4 days per week = 4 hours of personal time plus gas money. Also, working in your pajamas = priceless.

We also have a mix of Macs and PCs, and we needed a web based project management solution.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Dan - I have not exposed my clients to Mavenlink as I am still getting comfortable with it. My consultants are getting used to the interface.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Dan - Google Calendar and Google Docs integration help me keep everything moving forward. I attach proposals, creative briefs, and other important information right into Mavenlink.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Dan - My business coach told me to make S.M.A.R.T. goals:

Specific: Mavenlink Deliverables
Measurable: Mavenlink Milestones and Status
Achievable: Mavenllink Tasks (bite sized makes it easier to swallow)
Results: Mavenlink Assignments (make each person accountable)
Timeframe: Mavenlink Due Date

I guess what I’m trying to say is: “I need Mavenlink to help me meet my business goals!”

Sleepingbeagle Studios can be found on Facebook and you can contact Sleepingbeagle Studios directly on their website.

Expanding & Improving your Small Business with Consulting with Perez

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:45:00 +0200

”I really love Mavenlink. It's gotten me from being the young tech guy to the young technology professional; certainly a different tone.” - Mike Perez, Founder & Lead Consultant at Consulting with Perez

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Mike Perez - Consulting with Perez strives to provide affordable websites and technology services to small businesses and non-profits. We concentrate on providing such businesses with CRM websites, Google Apps powered email, and consultation services at a low cost.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Mike - Searching online for a project management suite.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Mike - Mavenlink has been able to help my team better allocate time and helped us become more efficient in our collaboration efforts. In the last month alone, we've been able to hook more clients in and retain them now that we have an online space that has fostered productivity. There aren't many things I wish it could also solve as it’s addressed all of our needs, but the mobile app for iPad would certainly be the icing on the cake.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Mike - Our clients say that Mavenlink is very clean, straight forward and to the point. Consultants and fellow co-workers say that Mavenlink has improved the way they work and the way they go about completing their work. It's helped get all the ideas of of their heads, off of a bunch of documents, and into a work space that other co-workers and consultants can comment and critique such ideas.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Mike - Using Mavenlink and Google Apps together has helped me stay on top of projects. With the way Mavenlink integrates into Google Apps, I don't miss deadlines and am always ahead of the game. I primarily utilize the integration into the Calendar. I don't use other Google products aside from those within the core suite of Google Apps.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Mike - I really love Mavenlink. It's gotten me from being the young tech guy to the young technology professional; certainly a different tone. One thing that I feel would change the way I, and perhaps other people, use Mavenlink would be an extension/plugin depository and marketplace. Being as Mavenlink has its own API and Google Apps has its own API, it would be great for the regular users such as myself to be able to extend our core Mavenlink installation.

Agile Project Management with Addiction Creative Media Lab

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:54:00 +0200

”We use Mavenlink everyday. We are a company of 10 members and every member tracks their work in Mavenlink.” - Fabio Ferrari at Addiction Creative Media Lab

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Fabio Ferrari - Addiction Creative Media Lab develops web applications in several technologies, including PHP, Java, MySQL, Adobe Flash. Our core business is to develop websites for small, medium and large companies.

We also work on digital signage projects for some important fairs companies, a dedicated application in Adobe Flash, and in the last year, we’ve worked on 3D animation on Realfiction Dreamoc devices. At the end of this year, we will have acquired a company involved in iOS App development to improve our capabilities there.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Fabio - Unsurprisingly, through Google. We have tried a lot of online collaboration tools, and have happily moved forward with Mavenlink.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Fabio - We like to work with agile project management method and we like to use a rigid timeline. Mavenlink works very well in this way. There are some limits in the functionality (eg. I can't move a subtask in a milestone to another one), but Mavenlink has helped us improve our agile work performance.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Fabio - They really like it, especially the interface.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Fabio - We take advantage of the sharing with Google Docs features, and the Gmail integration to collaborate with our team and easily respond via email.

Addiction Creative Media Lab can be found on Facebook and you can contact Addiction Creative Media Lab directly on their website.

Task Management with ChiOri Media

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:33:00 +0200

”I have never endorsed a product, but since I started using Mavenlink, I've spread the word everywhere!” - Birdie deQuay, Develper at ChiOri Media

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Birdie deQuay - ChiOri Media is a boutique new media agency working in Los Angeles and Barcelona. Personally, I'm a new media developer. I build websites, web apps, and mobile apps.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Birdie - I've been Google'ing for years. Had tried all task managers and project management tools, but Mavenlink was by far the very best I have found.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Birdie - The conversation log between clients, myself and our techs is very well done. Adding tasks, assigning projects, and attaching documents is brilliant. The global overview is well thought out. You can quickly access projects and their status.

The navigation is intuitive and clear, and adding projects a piece of cake.

If you could just find a way to help us create proposals online, that would be just incredible. I've been paying other sites for this, and I know you guys could do so much better.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Birdie - "They love it. I have also never endorsed a product just because, but since I started using Mavenlink, I've spread the word everywhere because I feel everyone should be on the same page!

I'm even an affiliate, which I have never done before.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Birdie - Archiving projects is somewhat simple. However, retrieving them is another issue I’d like to see made easier. Also, I'm a bit gun shy with PayPal Invoicing with who can see what. As mentioned above, I would really love to see a good proposal editor or some way of integrating PDFs.

It would be very very good to have a small widget area where a project manager can ""post"" useful account information (eg. server info, passwords, contacts) that would be easily accessible, just so we don't have to dig through the conversation log to find it.

Other than that, all is perfect.

ChiOri Media can be found on Facebook and Birdie can be found on Twitter.

Enhanced Communication & Efficiency with Wolford Consulting LLC

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:53:00 +0300

”Coming from a non-techy background - it is almost embarrassing to say that this has been a revelation to find out something existed like this product. I love it!” - Theresa Wolford, President & Owner at Wolford Consulting LLC

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Theresa Wolford - Wolford Consulting provides comprehensive clinical, behavioral health and vocational services for the Workers Compensation and Disability industries. Our clients are Attorneys and Insurance Companies.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Theresa - My web designer recommended the application as a way to effectively manage highly confidential file referrals.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink helped solve?

A: Theresa - It has allowed us a secure and efficient way to manage the referrals we receive from a variety of entities. We are still in the start up mode so I do not have hard data to provide in the way of demonstrating efficiencies. At this point, we do not have pain points we wish it could solve. However, as we grow, we will be willing to share them as they arise, if they do.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Theresa - This is an internal application. As such, the consultants who work for me are the ones aware of its use. Each consultant has been set up as a project and receive the file referrals as a deliverable. This allows them to manage their caseload. The consultants appreciate the efficiency and the privacy it affords us and how it meets our needs. They have also indicated the time tracking feature is a positive.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Theresa - Right now, we are just using Gmail. The Mavenlink email integration with our email system has certainly enhanced our communication and the efficiency with which we are able to communicate progress on projects.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us?

A: Theresa - Coming from a non-techy background - it is almost embarrassing to say that this has been a revelation to find out something existed like this product. I love it!

What more information? Feel free to contact Wolford Consulting directly.

Client Transparency with the ANROMA Group

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:33:00 +0300

”I give my clients 'Front Row Tickets to Their Project' which is the Mavenlink dashboard. Before Mavenlink, I was updating my clients by email only.” - Margaret Hernandez, Principal Consultant at The ANROMA Group

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Margaret Hernandez - The ANROMA Group is a business consulting company with a focus on client retention. We offer businesses several services to help them retain clients: Client Retention Planning, Customer Service Development and Staff Training, Management Development, and Social CRM.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Margaret - I have been a Google Apps user since 2007 and I frequent the Google Apps Marketplace to find tools that I can use in our small business. I found Mavenlink while I was looking for an online project management tool through Google Apps Marketplace.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink helped solve?

A: Margaret - To be a successful consultant I believe it's important to allow your clients to see your progress and to become a part of the project. Rather than just using long email chains. Mavenlink has given me the ability to custom brand my project dashboard and has given me the opportunity to share the project with my clients. Also, it's a great way to help me stay on task from week to week and step to step.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Margaret - When I explain to a potential client that they will have access to the project manager, I believe the level of trust is strengthened. They know that I'm accountable to them - and they have proof - they can see it. They know what's next. My colleagues are very impressed by the position I give my clients.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Margaret - The ANROMA Group is a relatively new user so I am still learning the ins/outs of the program. I use the email link to make sure all correspondence is housed in my Mavenlink project which I love. I look forward to learning more and growing with the software.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us?

A: Margaret - I've told my clients that I give them 'Front Row Tickets to Their Project' which is the Mavenlink dashboard. Before Mavenlink, I was updating my clients by email only. Mavenlink gives me a more professional and 'I've got it all under control' transparent look. Mavenlink not only helps the project process, but the sales process as well!

Check out The ANROMA Group on Facebook or Twitter, or you can contact The ANROMA Group directly.

Increasing Productivity & Efficiency with Philogic

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:17:00 +0300

”Mavenlink is leading the industry in integrated project management and sales technology.” - Orie Ward, Senior Partner at Philogic

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Orie Ward - Founded 2007, Philogic (pH) is a management consulting firm that helps businesses and non-profits develop infrastructure by custom-making business models and processes that are designed to increase efficiency, productivity, and profitability. The aim of our models is to add to the value, lifespan, and net worth of your business.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Orie - We were looking for an online project management tool and found Mavenlink in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink helped solve?

A: Orie - Mavenlink has allowed us to more efficiently track our billable hours. Its streaming project feed allows us coordinate our projects and keep more accurate records of our client interactions.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Orie - Our Team at Philogic believes in the type of product Mavenlink provides. Their technology undoubtedly makes us more productive and efficient. It helps make task-oriented work measurable and it creates an open platform for consultants to engage Clients.

Save another module for the CRM where we can track touches, drips, and Centers of Influence who become Clients and generate referrals, Mavenlink is leading the industry in integrated project management and sales technology.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Orie - The result of using both Mavenlink and Google Apps is that we have been able to integrate our calendar, contacts, and users from Google with all types of business development and communications tools in the Marketplace. Mavenlink provides us with this same functionality. We have been able to coordinate our Calendar with Project Timelines. Our project tasks and deliverables are made available in google so that we can keep track of progress and our online invoices are easily stored because Mavenlink sends email correspondence per transaction.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Orie - Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this Mavenlink Case Study. We look forward to seeing great things from Mavenlink, such as customer relationship management features. It would be great if Mavenlink's CRM platform utilized more of the conventional functions such as tracking and storing sales leads (prospects) for future engagement. If we could even coordinate distribution lists to send communications to our prospects and current client base. This would be extraordinarily helpful and would enhance the quality of Mavenlink's platform.

Check out Philogic on Twitter or contact Philogic directly.

Worldwide Project Management with VersaChannel

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:19:00 +0300

”Clients love it and can see the progress of their projects, and can easily communicate and interact.” - Alex Cornwell, Customer Integration of VersaChannel

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Alex Cornwell - VersaChannel is an online marketing company specializing in lead generation and presence management. As a new code has been created, we now allow our customers to compete with national providers through building an organic platform that dominates keywords and geotargets. We call it saturation services in internet, business directory, and social.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Alex - We came across Mavenlink while in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink helped solve?

A: Alex - Worldwide project management: At a snapshot, we can run a high volume of projects and stay on time.

We have an end goal to have it integrate through the Mavenlink API with our other applications. This would create a single system connected. A simple invoice system integrated with a strong API enabling an invoicing portal, and customer relationship management feeding projects into Mavenlink.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Alex - So far, clients love it and can see the progress of their projects, and can easily communicate and interact. Coworkers find it simple to use.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Alex - I love the interaction with Google Apps. We’d like to see it interact with Insightly’s CRM or another CRM for customer fulfillment, which would turn opportunities into projects! [Sean: We are currently working on both light-CRM features, along with integrations with select full service CRM companies. Excited to get those underway.]

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Alex - Budget versus expenses improvements. Also, all businesses have markup. I want to track true costs of labor rather than just the hour billable or put into it. Followup reminders and emails and it’d be great for timelines to trigger events to email and remind teams of actions due.

Check out VersaChannel and see what they are about.

Innovative Education with the Dallas School of Music

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 01:00:00 +0300

”Mavenlink allows us to easily organize the lessons and communication that takes place here on campus at the Dallas School of Music, as well as those educational correspondences that occur online.” - Eugene Cantera, Director of Social Media at the Dallas School of Music

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Eugene Cantera - We teach music on location at The Dallas School of Music (DSM) and have members who access our program online from all over the world. We go by the motto: “Discover, Learn, and Play!”

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Eugene - We recently decided to move all operations to 'the cloud' and found Mavenlink looking for online project management via Google Apps Marketplace.

Q: Sean - What pain points has Mavenlink solved for your business?

A: Eugene - Mavenlink allows us to easily organize the lessons and communication that takes place here on campus at DSM as well as those educational correspondences that occur online. It allows our students and users to interact with appropriate faculty members and keeps all notes efficiently organized in one spot online.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Eugene - Our staff is enjoying Mavenlink and we feel like we are just scratching the surface of its potential. Our clients (Dallas School of Music students and their families) enjoy having access to our staff between sessions and those using our online program perceive it as an incredible 'added value' that personalizes the music learning process.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Eugene - In Mavenlink, we create what we call music 'workspaces' for each student (both on campus and online). The 'tasks' we assign include educational information that is automatically emailed to students after each lesson. We've also created Achievement Certificates and use 'Milestones' in the Project Tracker to commend students who complete various levels of performance. We use Google Calendar for all lessons scheduled on campus and TimeToNote keeps track of our clients and business contacts, meetings and scheduled calls etc.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Eugene - We're pretty sure you guys did not intend Mavenlink to be used in an educational setting, let alone in music! But we're not your average (music) educators. Here is a link to an article titled Create the "Check" Box that's about our early years and how we never really 'fit in' to a traditional teaching format. Here is a more recent blog about who we are and what we're trying to do (this one mentions Mavenlink!).

The Dallas School of Music can be found on Facebook and Twitter, or contact the Dallas School of Music directly.

Easy Online Project Management with I-Wing Media

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:56:00 +0300

"Mavenlink is fantastic. It’s easy to use and is the ‘Facebook’ of project management. I love it!” - Chris Stroud, CEO of I-Wing Media

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Chris Stroud - Since inception, I-Wing Media has acted as an expert and professional in online advertising, consumer acquisition, affiliate marketing, site monetization, and business development to name a few. Our clients include advertisers/merchants, affiliates/publishers, advertising agencies, affiliate networks, and vendors alike.

Founded in 2009 by me, I-Wing Media comprises years of successful and accomplished online and offline business growth, practiced management, adept business development, specialized mentoring and a knowledgeable consulting experience.

Focused on being practiced, proficient and skilled in all aspects of our service, each client receives individual, separate and distinct plans customized to their needs.

If you’d like to see what makes us great, contact us today!

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Chris - I found Mavenlink while searching for online project management in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Q: Sean - How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Chris - With Mavenlink, we have been able to collaborate online easier, have a clear concise work tasking and tracking system, and have seen an increase in consumer interaction.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Chris - To put simply: they love it. It is easy to use and much better than the online project management system we had before.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Chris - The integration is fabulous! Truly. I am able to transition between calendar, tasks, project ‘contact’ development, etc. very easily. Really, the project ‘contact’ development and the ability to reach the system from within my Google Apps account are the greatest features in the system.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Chris - We’d like an Android app, but other than that, I think the system is fantastic. It’s easy to use and is the "Facebook" of project management. I love it!

I-Wing Media can be found on Facebook and Twitter, or contact I-Wing Media directly.

Save Money with PayPal Business Rate

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 03:36:00 +0300

Just last month, we were very excited to announce our PayPal integration with the Business Rate. We have been integrated with PayPal practically since we launched Mavenlink because we understand the need to not only conduct business and collaborate online, but to pay and get paid on the work at hand.

As more and more people are invoicing and making payments online (including ourselves), we noticed that large invoices can have rather large transaction fees. People want to save time and increase efficiency by making or collecting payments online instead of cashing a check, but is it worth always paying the large rate?

Well, with our PayPal Business Rate, you don't have to worry about that any more. Now, pay a Flat Fee! For all paid Mavenlink users, you only have to pay $0.50 per transaction and all free users have a cap of $5 per transaction. For instance, on a $6,000 invoice, you would typically have to pay $174 in fees, but with our new PayPal Business feature, you would just pay $0.50 or $5, respectively.

Sounds like a great deal to us!

Have more questions? Check out our PayPal Business Rate tutorial, Tweet us, or leave a comment below.

Note: PayPal is currently limiting the Business Rate only to people in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and China. We are working hard to expand payment options and discounted rates for our entire user base.

Saving Time & Money with M.INK Productions

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:06:00 +0300

”Mavenlink is a total time and money saver.” - Marcella Palmer, CEO of M.INK Productions, LLC

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Marcella Palmer - M.INK Productions, LLC is a content creation organization. We conceptualize, write and produce video content for the Internet and Television. M.INK helps its clients create and integrate video into their strategic plans.

We originate Internet programming that supports their brand, educates and engages current customers, attracts new ones, and/or increases revenue. In addition, we help companies present and communicate their message to sponsors, investors and employees through the use of video.

Our production services provide customers with quality video and voiceovers -- a solid message shot in HD -- for in-house purposes (such as training, orientation, etc.), webmercials, social media, blogs, vlogs, websites, news/v-letters, commercials, PSAs, b-roll, conferences and more.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Marcella - Through the Google Apps Marketplace.

Shea Maultsby - Yeah, we were searching for an affordable, easy-to-use project management tool and came across Mavenlink.

Q: Sean - How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Marcella - For us, Mavenlink is a total time and money saver through optimized organization. As we grow at M.INK, drawing in new clients, taking on larger projects, hiring on more help to get the job done in our accustomed high quality manner, it is so important to keep everyone organized.

It is easy to spend a fair amount of time searching for and resending missed emails to project team members. A needless, redundant task immediately ended by using Mavenlink to keep everyone on track within the same online project workspace.

Shea - Mavenlink has helped us to get organized, easily communicate with team members, manage multiple projects. It has definitely helped us save time, which ultimately equals saving money. It helps to keep all of the team members on track and enables us to collaborate without sending as many emails.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Marcella - Our employees and contractors like the streamlined workflow, clear communication, one stop shop for all project management information, status and updates. We all like the idea of tools that help us track time and expenses, billing and budgeting, but we're still pretty new to and working on getting into the groove of using these valuable features.

Shea - We are currently using Mavenlink with our employees and contractors. So far, we are all finding Mavenlink to be extremely helpful, but have yet to use when collaborating with our clients.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Marcella - Sharing Google Docs in Mavenlink is a huge time saver. We not only have our production scripts and notes at our fingertips right in the project, but we have a useful record of everybody's minute-by-minute input. We also like the messaging feature. You don't have to be logged into your Mavenlink project to receive important emails. We can access Mavenlink right from our Google Apps account. We also use Google Voice, Chat and Calendar.

Shea - We use Google Business Apps for email and calendar and can easily access Mavenlink from Google Apps. One disappointment is that we have not been able to get the Task Manager in Google Calendar to update properly when checking on the "Sync Project Tracker with Google Tasks" link in Mavenlink. [Sean: We are looking into the Google Tasks issue, as this should not be a problem.]

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us or features you’d like to see?

A: Marcella - We're pleased with the ease of use, flexibility and cost effectiveness of Mavenlink.

1) We’d like to see, and I know you've heard this a trillion times, a mobile app that we all can use no matter what your platform: iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Droid, etc. We're all ""on the go"" and are constantly communicating through our phones and iPads and whatnot. I tried using Mavenlink through traditional methods, but it’s not really the same experience.

2) A scheduler with an audible and/or text alarm/notification would be nice.

3) A Mavenlink project time tracker would also be a fine addition with an offline app you can use through your Mac Dashboard, then send the time data right to a particular project in Mavenlink.

Shea - To echo Marcella, so far we really like Mavenlink, but would love to see it as a mobile app for devices like Blackberry and Android.

M.Ink Productions, LLC can be found on Facebook and Twitter, or contact M.INK Productions directly.

Great Options for Free Audio & Web Conferencing

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 04:11:00 +0300

While we all look forward to the days when our communications with colleagues will consist of a "Hangout" within Google+, for now, having reliable conference calling and web conferencing is still a must. There are a number of free players in the space (see Catchfree ), but I have used these two enough to recommend them with confidence.

1) For conference calling, take a look at FreeConferenceCall.com. It takes just a couple of minutes to set up, has international numbers if you need them, and works like a champ. We've been using it for 3 years.

2) For Desktop Sharing, try Join.me. It loads up faster than it's heavier brethren (for you and your guests, much less drag on your machine), and is dead simple to use. You will find there are a few features missing (ability to transfer control of the desktop, ability to draw on the screen, etc.), but for the ease, the dependability, the price (free), and the speed, I find myself using Join.me most of the time even though I have paid licenses to the heavier providers.

What are some of the conference call and web conferencing products that you have used? Which products, in your eyes, are worth paying for?

Collaborating Efficiently with Thomas Econometrics

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:41:00 +0300

”Mavenlink has improved our ability to collaborate efficiently. My team members are rarely in the same place at the same time, so it's essential that we have a centralized space for our projects that can be accessed from anywhere.” - Stephanie R. Thomas, Ph.D., Founder of Thomas Econometrics

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Stephanie Thomas - Thomas Econometrics provides quantitative solutions for workplace issues. We have advised hundreds of clients in a variety of applied economics and statistics matters across the country. Our client base includes Fortune 500 companies, major law firms, and federal agencies such as the Department of Justice and the FBI.

We routinely perform analyses of compensation and selection decisions, and have deep expertise in applying quantitative tools to employment litigation, regulatory investigation, and proactive litigation risk management.

As the founder, I have provided expert economic and statistical testimony in mediation, arbitration, and in federal and state courts throughout the United States.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Stephanie - We found Mavenlink through their Google Apps Marketplace listing. After reviewing and demoing several different products, Mavenlink was the clear choice for our online project management.

Q: Sean - How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Stephanie - Before finding Mavenlink, we were using several stand-alone products for project management, document management, and time tracking & invoicing. Mavenlink integrates all of these functions in one place. It's saved us a substantial amount of time, since we no longer have to work with multiple systems on multiple platforms. Because everything we need is integrated, we can focus on our clients, rather than focusing on syncing our information across different systems and troubleshooting integration problems.

Mavenlink has improved our ability to collaborate efficiently. My team members are rarely in the same place at the same time, so it's essential that we have a centralized space for our projects that can be accessed from anywhere. WIth Mavenlink, our documents, correspondence, invoicing, and project timelines and deliverables are updated in real time and are available to us wherever we are.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Stephanie - We are heavy Google users. Mavenlink's seamless integration with Google Apps lets us use our existing Google Contacts, Google Calendars, Google Documents and Google Task lists natively. There was no import / export involved in the implementation of Mavenlink, and because the sync is automated and integrated, we don't have to worry about maintaining multiple sets of files.

Email integration is one of our favorite features. Each project has its own email address in Mavenlink; this address is automatically added to your contacts when the project is created. We can forward emails from our clients to the project email address simply by entering the project name, and the email contents are automatically incorporated into the project stream.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us?

A: Stephanie - Custom branding is a cool feature. It doesn't really save us time or money, but it makes us look - and feel - like the big guys!

Thomas Econometrics can be found on Facebook and Twitter, or you can contact Thomas Econometrics directly.

Collaborating Globally with the Better Business Network

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:50:00 +0300

"We love Mavenlink and so do our clients and partners." - Keith Chan, Co-Founder of Better Business Network

Better Business Network is a network of resources that provides sustainable business solutions to small businesses in the form of technology and main stream global collaboration. We specialize in educational classes, consulting and the facilitating of global resources. We also provide turnkey solutions to businesses in areas like web design, online advertising, online marketing, social media marketing and more.

We have been using Mavenlink for the last few months and have found it to be an essential component in our business for communication and collaboration both locally and globally. We have tried almost every other alternative like Salesforce.com, PBWiki, Dabble DB, Basecamp. These programs have come and gone, but Mavenlink has proved itself to be the long-term front runner in our business for online project management, project tracking, and referral based projects.

Mavenlink has proven itself not only in the form of a static resource, but as a competitive advantage when marketing our products and services to our clients, referral partners and potential resellers. Mavenlink gives us the ability to build working proposals, show transparency in all our projects, allow resellers and partners to follow along with their referrals, and so many other great online project management features.

Not only have we been using Mavenlink in new and exciting ways to grow our business, but the clients we bring on board have loved the software as well. We have seen them adopt Mavenlink themselves and use it to manage and showcase their projects from a wide range of different industries. Mavenlink allows you to do business better and we’d recommend it to anyone whos looking to do something different or something their already doing better.

The Better Business Network can be found on Facebook and Twitter, or contact Better Business Network directly.

Centralizing Data & Managing Projects with Minneapolis College of Art & Design

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 03:02:00 +0300

”Mavenlink helps us aggregate our project communication, tasks, and deliverables all in one place. Having a centralized place for this data is incredibly valuable to us.” - Aaron Hecker, Lead Help Desk Specialist of Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Aaron Hecker - Minneapolis College of Art and Design is a private, non-profit college with 750 students. Our curriculum relies very heavily on technology. As a result, we manage dozens of IT projects throughout the school year and many more during summer months.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Aaron - We were looking for any type of project management software. We discovered Mavenlink because we wanted to leverage our Google Apps for Education infrastructure to minimize development, implementation, and support time making a project management package work.

Q: Sean - How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Aaron - Mavenlink helps us aggregate our project communication, tasks and deliverables all in one place. Having a centralized place for this data is incredibly valuable to us. Mavenlink puts a nice skin on this information storehouse and it is easy to work with.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Aaron - Many of my colleagues like the software, but some feel it is too communication-focused and that the meat of the project (task management) is too small given its importance. [Sean: Luckily, updates to the Project Tracker are underway and will be rolled out this summer.]

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Aaron - We utilize the Google Apps Integration with Google Docs, Calendar, Gmail, Groups, and a few other Apps in our day to day. Having Mavenlink integrated with Calendar has been incredibly helpful for us. We will often times provide a link to Google Docs within our projects and sometimes utilize the project space email for communication tracking.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us?

A: Aaron - I'm happy with the software. After using it for a few months, I have some feature requests which would substantially improve the ease of use in our environment. I will be submitting these shortly. [Sean: Glad to hear. We love getting user feedback. Just submit all requests to our Help Center where our Product & Engineering Team aggregate all requests.]

Minneapolis College of Art and Design can be found on Facebook and Twitter, or contact Minneapolis College of Art and Design directly.

What "Cars" Taught Me About Business

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:25:00 +0300

One benefit of working from a home office is that you can spend an obscene amount of time with your family, and lately that means spending every morning watching Cars with my two year old son, Jude, who is obsessed with Lightning McQueen and his pursuit of the Piston Cup.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen Cars at least 20 times. I can recite every line and still find myself on the edge of the seat waiting to see if McQueen will pull it off on the final lap and be the first rookie ever to win the Piston Cup and land the deal with Dinoco!

Lately, I’ve become quite fond of our morning movie dates and learn something new each time we see Cars. I originally thought Cars was nothing more than a cartoon made up of talking metal, but lately have been taking some valuable business and ethical lessons away that have had a positive influence on our business and relationships.

Here are three of my favorite lessons from the movie and how I’ve fit them in with our business:

1) We don’t always need to be first.

Arguably, the overall theme of the movie is to just slow down. McQueen is chasing the race to be number one, the champion, the fastest in the world. When he lands in the sleepy town of Radiator Springs, which he destroys with his speed, he ends up taking a drive with Sally and learns how she found and eventually stayed in Radiator Springs.

Sally takes us back in time and mentions how cars used to just drive, enjoy the scenery, meet other cars and see what’s happening around them. Then, the interstate came and the winding drive down Route 66 through Radiator Springs was bypassed just so that drivers could save ten minutes.

The interstate that carries traffic right past Radiator Springs is a metaphor for our internet. We look for ways to just drive by, cut the corners so that we too can save ten minutes with some new magical app or template for success. Our customers and our community become data rather than relationships, and in our fanatical race to be number one we drive right past the substance and scenery that drives our company’s cultures and relationships with our partners and clients.

2) Make listening a conscious routine.

This is another one of McQueen’s hard lessons. Throughout the movie, he is purely focused on what his goals are and not straying from the linear (oval in his case) route to get there. He refuses to take time to listen to others as they offer advice and thoughts of encouragement, ultimately delaying his own success. Like many of us, his ignorance is his nemesis.

As the movie develops and McQueen begins to listen and become more engaged in his surroundings, things start to move in a positive direction for him. He begins to pay attention and then continues with curiosity and questions. In the early parts of the movie, conversations with McQueen were all about him, however, as the plot evolves, McQueen begins to make a conscious effort to absorb what others are saying.

When we turn listening into a conscious activity we evolve our conversations from hearing to understanding. We learn things about others that they wouldn’t have revealed before, simply because we weren’t listening for them. Being conscious means being prepared to challenge our own thoughts and explore viewpoints we perhaps wouldn’t have considered before.

3) The Piston Cup is just an empty cup

This is my favorite quote in the movie and the lesson I hope Jude, most kids, and their parents come away with. Throughout the film, McQueen is focused on winning the Piston Cup and landing his big deal with Dinoco. His journey, however, through slowing down, listening, and engaging others allows him to learn what is truly important and how he can achieve success and happiness.

The mayor of the town, Doc Hudson, a three time Piston Cup winner himself, slowly becomes McQueen’s mentor and, rather than show McQueen how to win the championship, he teaches him the values of doing things for the right reason and acknowledging those who helped him achieve.

In the end, McQueen loses the final race and his chance at the Piston Cup, instead he opts to do the right thing and help others through the finish line. McQueen is in a position to help and does so without being asked.

Now, I may be looking a bit too into this cartoon business, or I may just need a day of adult time, but as important as these lessons are for kids they may be more important for us when we are growing our businesses.

Is it really that important to be number one? Do we have to be the fastest or the first to reach the finish line? There is nothing wrong with winning, but I’m just not sure what we’re actually competing for?

Every genuine partnership we have developed has been fostered over time and in an antiquated analog fashion. In short, we listen and we learn rather than blindly connect. Instead of data, we’re looking for relationships. We take the side roads so that we can see what’s around us and understand the world outside of our own.

Our group is focused on how we develop relationships, how we see opportunities, and how we interact with our stakeholders, in that order. Revenue isn’t our focus, but cash continues to find its way to our bank and we continue to grow. Like McQueen, our focus has evolved from the what to the how. I just wish more businesses and their owners would take the same approach.

Justin Knechtel is the Founder and Managing Director of the Northwest Freelancers Association, an independent non-profit group dedicated to promoting, cultivating, and representing the freelance community of the Pacific Northwest. You can connect with him on Twiter or About.me.

Here are more posts by Justin:

Announcing QuickBooks Online Integration via Intuit Anywhere

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:04:00 +0300

Update 1/25/12: We have launched! Mavenlink now integrates with Quickbooks

We're very excited to be announcing our upcoming QuickBooks integration on the Intuit Partner Platform today. Maybe you've seen some of the great coverage in ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb, and others already.

As Ray, our CEO, said in the press release: "Integrating QuickBooks Online with Mavenlink is one of the most requested features from our user base and Intuit Anywhere has delivered. By working with Intuit, thousands of our SMB customers who work online with their clients will be able to spend more time collaborating, reduce administration and have an accurate reflection of their business financials."

We've been listening to you, our customers, for many months tell us that a QuickBooks integration would be a huge help. By synchronizing your Mavenlink finances and payments automatically with your accounting system, you'll be able to reduce your administrative costs and spend more time doing what you love: the actual work, not the administrivia.

I'm especially pumped up, because we're not stopping there. We know Mavenlink is your choice for an end-to-end business management platform, not just an invoicing system. Here are a few of the features we're working on now, capturing the full lifecycle of your projects:

-Use QuickBooks estimates to send a quote to your client and use the accepted estimates to create a Mavenlink project with one click

-When there's a change in project scope, use Mavenlink's project change notices, get client acceptance, and sync price changes back to QuickBooks

-Send an invoice from QuickBooks or Mavenlink that's tied directly to the work you estimated and worked on, so the invoice and value delivered is provable, not questionable

We'll be launching this into general availability with Intuit in the fall when they roll out Intuit Anywhere to the over 400,000 QuickBooks Online users. Until then, please let us know in our Feature Requests area and in the comments what you'd like to see.

Want early access?

Fortunately, we're already working hard on getting this delivered and we are accepting a few lucky beta users now. Want to be a part of it? Send us an email at support@mavenlink.com and request access.

Saving Time with Angry Dog

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 02:32:00 +0300

”If I didn't have Mavenlink, I would lose at least 2 hours of sleep per night.” - Chancellor New, Chief Security Officer of Angry Dog Business Intelligence

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Chancellor New - Angry Dog offers I.T. tech support, disaster recovery, business continuity, sign shop, and last, but certainly not least, we are a print shop.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Chancellor - We were actually referred to Mavenlink by the Georgia State Defense Force.

Q: Sean - How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Chancellor - Time and money...and more time and money again!

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Chancellor - To keep things short, they honestly love it! Mavenlink makes us look good.

Q: Chancellor - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Chancellor - Google Tasks and Google Calendar automatically sync with Mavenlink, which is such an incredible organizational tool and time saver.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us?

A: Chancellor - If I didn't have Mavenlink, I would lose at least 2 hours of sleep per night. Thanks for saving me, Mavenlink!

Angry Dog can be found on Facebook and Twitter, or you can contact Angry Dog directly on their site.

Project Management & Google Apps with My Office Assistant

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:06:00 +0300

”I am sure I could go on and on about how wonderful this project management program is. Thank you Mavenlink for making work life easier.” - Lee Drozak, Owner & Chief Virtual Professional of My Office Assistant

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Lee Drozak - My Office Assistant is a full service agency that implements and strategizes to allow you to run your business efficiently and professionally. Our mission is to provide results oriented service designed to meet client needs and objectives by providing cost-effective services as well as excellent customer support.

Unlike other Virtual Assistant firms, we maintain a wide range of experience to meet each of our client’s business needs. We excel in web design and development, internet marketing, social media, bookkeeping, public relations, general administration, eCommerce, process management and more.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Lee - After trying many other project management applications, including Basecamp and ClientSpot, we were not happy with the functionality and integration into Google Apps for Business. We found Mavenlink during an app search and have not looked back since.

Q: Sean - How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Lee - Mavenlink has helped me manage my team and client projects with ease. We like that we can collaborate in real-time and link to the different Google products, including Google Docs. Finding supporting documents that go with each project has saved considerable time, along with maintaining all conversations that go with each task.

The time tracking and expenses piece of the puzzle is the icing on the cake. Now my clients know where they stand with expenses and I know how much time my team is spending on each task.

Q: Sean - What do your clients, consultants, and fellow co-workers say about Mavenlink?

A: Lee - My consultants love that everything they need is at their fingertips and a few of my clients now have accounts for their own business. My web maintenance clients also like that they can just upload files to their project and do not have to worry if it is received in my inbox.

Many of my clients love that the project dashboard is clean and easy to use while they are getting updated statuses on any open (or closed) projects that they have.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Lee - We have implemented the shared Google contacts, integrated our calendars and attach supporting documents with Docs. I no longer have to worry about hoping back and forth to find an email address or to see if a consultation is posted on my calendar.

Finding files for each project or task is great with the link to my Google Docs. You just need to find the task or deliverable and link to the file. Once the link is established, no more searching your files, click the attached link and the document opens automatically. Best yet, no worry if you are working from the latest version.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us?

A: Lee - I like that Mavenlink has a board where you can submit ideas for improvements, which I have done. When I submitted my suggestion, I got an immediate response that it was a good idea and would be added to the queue. Best yet, you can follow all the suggested improvements and see if they are in progress, added or have additional comments by customer service. Customer service is a-one and they really do listen to their customers.

My Office Assistant can be found on Facebook and Twitter, or you can contact My Office Assistant directly.

PayPal Integration & Business Rate

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 03:05:00 +0300

This video is an overview of the simple Mavenlink integration with PayPal and the special Business Rate. With the click of a button, you can save lots of money on every PayPal transaction you make in Mavenlink. The video demonstrates how easy it is to pay your online invoices to your consultants via PayPal as well. It literally takes less than one minute.

With our new PayPal Business Rate, our Paid user accounts only have to pay $0.50 per transaction and for Free user accounts, you pay $5 per transaction, instead of the standard 2.9% PayPal rate.

That means for Paid users, you only need to have a transaction of $18 ($18 X 2.9% > $0.50) and for Free users, you only need to have a transaction of $173 ($173 X 3.9% > $5) to save money.

Get Started with PayPal Business Payments

Create a PayPal Business Account if you don't already have one.
Log into Mavenlink.
Click "Account" to the right of your picture, then click the "Account" tab.
Check the "Accept PayPal Business Payments" box.
Click the "Save" button.
Enjoy extremely low transaction fees!

CatchFree Launches at TechCrunch Disrupt

Fri, 27 May 2011 01:26:00 +0300

CatchFree launched two days ago at TechCrunch Disrupt by Founder Sean Ellis. CatchFree is a community driven website that makes it easy to share and discover free web apps.

At Mavenlink, we came out swinging from the start and have been a top-5 app since the site launched, but now we need your help to climb to the top spot. Just click Mavenlink to vote and then Show Your Support!

Since the website and recommendations are community driven, as mentioned above, we need the support from our great users and everybody out there ready to try Mavenlink. Simple algorithm for the top spot: get the most votes or Tweets!

We appreciate all the buzz and support you have given Mavenlink and are excited to keep expanding and improving the product, while connecting with new users everyday. After you vote for us (or before), Tweet us any questions you may have and to let us know to follow you.

Google Tasks API Integration

Wed, 11 May 2011 18:29:00 +0300

This video is an overview of how Mavenlink integrates with the Google Tasks API. We launched our Google Tasks integration in conjunction with the Google Task API release, which took place at Google I/O.

This feature allows users to seamlessly sync your tasks in both a Mavenlink project workspace and in Google Apps or Gmail. Assign new tasks, mark as complete, and work from wherever you feel most comfortable.

When adding tasks in Mavenlink or marking complete, the information will be automatically synced with Gmail. When adding tasks or marking complete in Gmail, you must click "Sync Project Tracker with Google Apps" in each respective project.

Lastly, make sure that you enable the Google Tasks integration in your account page under the "Google Account Integration" section.

We believe our Google Task integration with the Google API will really help you work more productively and efficiently.

Related Links:

The Pricing Conundrum for Freelancers

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:20:00 +0300

I recently took part in a great round table discussion with a group of freelancers in Seattle. I knew going in that our topic - pricing our services - was going to provide some great dialogue; I just didn’t realize how complex the process of establishing a pricing strategy truly is as a freelance professional. After about 90 minutes in and numerous rounds of coffees, beers, and horror stories, we had really just scratched the surface of this when we called it a night.

That was last week and now the Northwest Freelancers Association is in the process of developing a series of workshops and templates to help our members fully address this topic and feel confident that their prices are not only fair, but will also sustain their personal financial goals throughout the future.

In the meantime, below are three nuggets we came up with that should provide a solid framework to build from when trying to establish your prices in your own freelancing business:

1) Discourage ambiguity

Every freelancer is asked the awful question: How much does X cost? Regardless of what X represents in your business, the answer should always be the same - At this point, I’m not sure. You absolutely have to dive deeper into the conversation and fully understand what the client is trying to accomplish.

Without fully understanding a client’s needs, it’s impossible to provide a fair and reliable estimate. By blindly providing a “rough estimate” at this point without engaging deeper with the client is only setting the project, the client, and your reputation up for ultimate disaster. The advice seems basic, but in reality is a very common and an avoidable outcome I see all the time.

Additionally, hold yourself to the same rules you provide for clients. Don’t ask for or assume something without providing a clear picture. What’s your budget? is less likely to yield as reliable answer than How did you establish your budget? Bottom line: be specific.

2) Maintain your consistency

One of the most difficult things to do when pricing your services is to take a step back and evaluate how your pricing structure may influence the way client’s perception of you and your professionalism.

While it’s a nice thought to offer different rates for various types of clients or services (for profit v. non profit or coding v. testing), this is generally a bad idea. If you bill, and therefore value, an hour of your time for Client A at $100 then why would you only value yourself at $75 for Client B? If you charge $100 per hour writing HTML then why do you only charge $45 per hour for site testing?

Don’t diminish your value to meet a client’s needs, rather, modify the scope or hours involved instead. By doing so, you will ultimately avoid any conflicts in the future as well as help yourself maintain consistency in your service, communication, and professionalism.

3) Be confident and firm in your pricing

As long as we’ve put in the time and effort into establishing your rates and providing your client with an honest estimated cost for the project, then the price shouldn’t change. Don’t become a bargain bin freelancer and turn yourself, your team of freelancers, or your work into a commodity.

Price and psychology go hand in hand. If you present an estimate to your client, who in turn wants you to knock 10 or 20 percent off, which you then do, you may think that you’ve won the job when in fact all you have done is told the client I was charging too much in the first place. If you want to work with this client, then do some things to alter the project, but don’t alter your rate to fit a client’s budget.

We all need work, but we also need referrals and repeat business. By allowing ourselves to be negotiated down, we open the doors for lower future payments, lower quality referrals, and lowered expectations. Regardless of what you do or how much you charge, there will always be someone that can do it for less money, and guess what, you are doing it for less money than someone else. Be confident in your pricing and value your time appropriately.

These are just three simple reminders to keep yourself honest and help the freelance industry as a whole. Being a freelancer is an incredibly challenging responsibility. It’s not just you that you’re representing, but you help to represent an entire community of other independent professionals working just as hard as you are to earn a living by doing the work we enjoy.

Pricing your services fairly, delivering on your promises, and maintaining your professionalism will help you to spend less time chasing dollars and more time booking clients.

Here are more posts by Justin:

Information Week - Coworking and Online Social Collaboration Create Community

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:08:00 +0300

Many thanks to David Carr of Information Week for taking the time to dive into new ways people are collaborating in the physical world and in the online world.

Ever since Rick L'Amie of Moxie Marketing introduced Mavenlink to Liz Elam at Link Coworking, the doors of possibility have been flying open. After spending some time with the Link community in Austin, and learning more about the coworking movement at the Coworking Unconference, it was pretty clear that we share a common goal, helping the new workforce. Whether it is in a browser or in a well designed coworking space, independents, remote workers, and small businesses are all seeking more meaningful interactions. In a highly connected world, people are taking the next step to turn connections into relationships, built on trust, frequency and quality of interactions. Coworking spaces like Liz's in Austin provide an unbelievable environment, truly a community, to build those strong professional relationships. At Mavenlink, our goal is to build a comprehensive project collaboration platform and trusted networks that allow users to take advantage of the online medium to extend their relationship building. I've heard Liz say, and I couldn't agree more, the way people work is changing rapidly in front of our eyes, "At Link, we don't do anything without a recommendation. We can't even pick a lunch spot without someone's endorsement."

I think David Carr, Information Week and specifically TheBrainYard are covering an important trend as the business world continues to move towards the "Social Business", where people and their relationships are everything.

File Management

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:23:00 +0300

This video is an overview of the File Management feature that I am showing from a Custom Branded login, but is available to everybody. Access the File Management tab from any Project Workspace, your Dashboard, or anywhere else in Mavenlink.

With this feature, you will be able to easily manage and view all of your files you have access to in Mavenlink. Search and sort by file name, file type, who the file was uploaded by, project name, and the date. You can simply click any file to download it to your desktop or view via the in-line viewer.

With this line item view, it's easy to view the the file name, project, uploader, and size of each file, along with accessing the project or person by clicking their respective name. Arguably the top aspect of the File Management feature is viewing the associated messages and message thread for each file.

File Management is pretty crucial for project management, which combined with the File Filter Function within each Project Workspace should make working online even more efficient.

Mavenlink: 2011 TechAmerica Orange County High-Tech Innovation Awards Finalist

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:39:00 +0300

Mavenlink is honored to be named as one of TechAmerica's 2011 finalists for the Outstanding Cloud Computing Award. In addition to the recognition for all of the hard work that has gone into the product, we are excited about the opportunity to actively participate in the Orange County high-tech community. Congratulations to all of the the other finalists, especially those in our category, Evantix, Rcampus, Sage, Telogis and Voice Assist.

We are already looking forward to the awards dinner on June 9, 2011 at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine, CA. Hope to see some of you there!

File Filters

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:39:00 +0300

This video is an overview of File Sharing & Management within your collaborative Project Workspace using our built-in Filter function. This feature is often overlooked when initially using Mavenlink, but really organizes your Project Feed, especially with messages with attachments, viewing attachments only, and specific activities in your Project Tracker.

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Have you used the File Filter function? Don't you wish the rest of your life could be organized so seamless and easy?

That’s One Sharp Mavenlink

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:14:00 +0300

One Sharp Design is a complete turn-key internet marketing business-to-business solution. Our studio specializes in everything from Web Design, Corporate Branding, Identity, SEO, Social Marketing, Analytics, and Optimization. Our process is highly detailed and client specific.

Our agencies employs designers, writers, programmers, accountants and a plethora of talented individuals from all over the country and some over seas. The best design agencies and studios are documentation fanatics, we are happy to say the same! That’s where Mavenlink became a dream come true for us.

Removing redundancy in any process of any business saves valuable time and money. We shopped for project management software for quite some time before we landed with Mavenlink. Mavenlink’s Google integration, private networks, client/colleague login, and invoice and expense capabilities have helped us to keep all of our efforts in one workspace.

Our clients and colleagues come from diverse locations and cultures; Mavenlink keeps our process virtual and global. Mavenlink has even become a selling point for many of our clients, the transparent project workspace and invoicing helps to keep them organized just as well.

We’ve even gone as far as to place Mavenlink on our homepage so clients log right into their project space from our site. Mavenlink is by far one of our most powerful online tools to help run our business efficiently!

Matt and One Sharp Design can be found on Twitter or contact them directly.

Small Business Clients with M.Y.O.B Consulting

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:09:00 +0300

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Natalie Caro - M.Y.O.B. Consulting provides small businesses with professional resources and services such as Incorporation, Start-Up Help, Accounting, Operations Management & Marketing. We service local clients as well as clients across the country. They have the flexibility to choose our services a la carte, or retain us on a monthly basis.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Natalie - After using Basecamp for a year, we weren't satisfied with it's functionality and had trouble customizing it to fit our business' needs. We then researched web-based project management online and experimented with some free trials after performing a Google search and stumbled upon Mavenlink.

Q: Sean - How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Natalie - We are still experimenting with Mavenlink, but collaborating with clients, independent consultants, and co-workers so far has been a treat. We like the Projects Overview Dashboards, but still have lots to learn about integrating with Gmail, Google Docs, etc.

Q: Sean - What do your clients and consultants say about Mavenlink?

A: Natalie - Co-workers and consultants have had a chance to navigate and so far are preferring the experience over the Basecamp project manager we've used in the past. We have yet to introduce our small business clients to Mavenlink. We want to make sure we can fully navigate before we let others in.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Natalie - We have recently moved our emails over to Google Enterprise and Mavenlink so far it is the first App we've implemented. We are enjoying the ease of use of Google Calendars, Google Forms and Google Docs. We are anticipating the integration between Mavenlink and our other Google products will work well.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us?

A: Natalie - I would like to commend Mavenlink on their excellent customer service. We at M.Y.O.B. Consulting believe so much that a product or service is only as good as the company and customer service that back it up. Thanks for listening!

Make sure to follow M.Y.O.B. Consulting on Twitter or contact M.Y.O.B. Consulting directly on their website.

Recommendations for Assembling a Great Freelance Team

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 02:07:00 +0300

Whether you are an entrepreneur looking to jumpstart your business with specialized talent or a business line executive at a Fortune 100 company looking to optimize an external workforce, Ray Grainger, Mavenlink's CEO, captured some key recommendations for you to consider on Mashable.

In a quick read, Ray is able to lay out five keys to assembling a great external team:

Leverage Your Network to Find Great Talent
Use an Online Workspace for Collaboration and Project Management
Create Clearly Defined Goals and Deadlines
Connect Project Management to Budgets and Invoicing
Keep it Simple

To read more, please see the entire article, and let us know what you think.

Mavenlink Independent Analyst Review

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 02:34:00 +0300

Eval-Source yesterday published a detailed review of Mavenlink and Mavenlink's project management and collaboration platform on GetApp, an App store for business software. It is a comprehensive review that covers:

Business Problem Addressed
Pricing Model
Solution Analysis
Technical Specifications
Conclusions

The review provides excellent insight for anyone evaluating technologies in the project management or project collaboration space. As someone who has been close to the technology since the beginning, it is always nice to take a step back and see how your pride and joy looks to through someone else's eye. While there are plenty of valuable nuggets in the piece, including the team's impressions of the strengths of the application (comprehensive, custom branding, intuitiveness and security), I think the team at Eval-Source provided the best summary in their concluding remarks:

"Project Management is becoming more commonly used to streamline and execute business initiatives within organizations. Because project management can be applied to many different verticals and any type of business the need to adapt a software tool is a prerequisite for success. Mavenlink is a project management tool that combines extensive functionality with a very smooth and intuitive interface. The delivery model as a Saas solution means Mavenlink can be easily adopted by a company as the main a tool with which to manage projects. With the integration to Google Apps, Mavenlink can further its functionality.

Mavenlink is a good fit for small enterprises without a PMO or certified PMPs on staff. Its application provides a common sense approach to creating projects and tasks, scheduling, planning, and collaborating in order to complete a project. The secure project area provided by Mavenlink and its approach to email based project messaging ensures projects tasks are not overlooked and are fully visible to all project participants based upon user access rights. This application enables organizations to manage projects without hassle, thereby lowering administrative costs.

A key differentiator for Mavenlink in the project management space is its tight financial integration. Smaller organizations that utilize remote workers can easily calculate sub-contractors time, project resources, project budgets and expenses without ever leaving the application. It is a tool that not only tracks and manages the project billing, but can also issue invoices directly from the application, which reduces overall administration and simplifies the accounting process."

To see the entire review, please visit GetApp's Evaluation Center.

Managing Independent Programmers with Metis Design Group

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:44:00 +0300

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Bart Jarman - Metis Design Group designs and builds mobile websites. More and more people are browsing the internet via their smartphones, and for the most part, most websites are terrible. They load slow and are hard to navigate. Metis designs mobile versions of small business websites so they load fast and are easy to navigate.

Q: Sean - How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Bart - We were looking for something to replace Google Wave, which we had been using to manage IT projects. We spent time with a couple of Google Apps products before we stumbled on Mavenlink for our online project management.

Q: Sean - How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Bart - Metis operates primarily with a group of independent programmers. Having the ability to coordinate everybody's efforts in one hosted location has been ideal. Most of our programmers are not located here in our offices, so we needed something fairly robust. The time tracking features have really helped us keep costs in line as well.

Q: Sean - What do your clients and subcontractors say about Mavenlink?

A: Bart - So far the feedback has been very positive. One of our primary programmers signed up for his own account right after we started using it.

Q: Sean - Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps.

A: Bart - We haven't used all of the functionality that Google Apps could offer together with Mavenlink. Mostly some shared Google contact information is all at this point. We expect that will increase over time.

Q: Sean - Anything else you want to tell us?

A: Bart - Having a web-based project management solution has been critical. With so many things going on, it really helps to be able to track projects via a simple browser tab. When something happens that I need to know, there are email notifications that I can customize. The project workspace is clean and easy to understand. We even use a separate project just for milestone announcements to senior staff; they don't care about the nuts and bolts, but like being able to log into the project and see major accomplishments.

Make sure to follow Metis on Twitter or contact Metis on their company website.

Basecamp Meets Freshbooks

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:44:00 +0300

The other week, we were featured in GigaOm by Aliza Sherman in a post titled: Mavenlink Integrates Collaboration, Project Management and Invoicing. One of our favorite quotes from the article by Aliza we used as part of the title for our post here, "Think of Mavenlink like 'Basecamp meets Freshbooks.'" We love that quote as it simply states what we offer: a project management platform that includes time tracking and invoicing.

Aliza covers the emphasis we have made to integrate Mavenlink with Google Apps, and mentions how we are one of the highest ranked apps in the Google Apps Marketplace. She also provides a quick table on features we include in our project management platform for Collaboration, Conducting Business, and Personalization. Here is the breakdown:

Collaboration

Conduct Business

Personalize

Custom Branding
Networks (team, clients)
Online Profile
Work History

She goes on to cover how Mavenlink can help streamline your workflow and "the soup to nuts approach to project management seems to set Mavenlink apart from other project management tools that handle only parts of the overall project process." We highly recommend reading the GigaOm article in its entirety.

Follow both Aliza Sherman on Twitter and GigaOm on Twitter.

All in Good Time Zones with Konnessi

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:25:00 +0300

Between clients who regularly cross international waters for business and a fair share of globe-trotting employees, the mile-a-minute workdays at Konnessi often span time zones east and west of our headquarters in Providence, RI. We’d never get anywhere if we waited for everyone’s sleep schedules to synchronize, which is why we instead turned to the same tech tools that have helped us successfully brand and market products, increase our clients’ revenues, and spread tech-related news.

A perfect example: in early March, three members of one of our projects were in three very different locations. Our client contact was in Shanghai for an international conference. The project manager from Konnessi had taken her younger sister on holiday, and was alternately in Zurich and Vienna. The development team was in their usual....erm, lair....at Konnessi headquarters in Rhode Island. Thirty years ago…or maybe just a few, this would have been a nightmare. In fact, it probably would have held up the project for a week plus. International calling was certainly no less expensive then than it is now, and it is unlikely that all three parties could have found a mutually convenient time to talk anyway.

Again, the folks over at Mavenlink came to the rescue. Using their online project management space, our project manager sent content and some questions from her hostel bunk in Vienna, the client logged in between conference lectures to check in on progress, and the rest of the Konnessi team was able to keep up with the flow of work as usual.

For clients on the go (and for employees satisfying their wanderlust, for that matter), sharing documents with real time messaging and brainstorming in an easily-accessible online project workspace is almost as good as doing the same thing in person. We’re not suggesting that each member of the Konnessi team should leave to become a globe-hopping location independent adventurer, but platforms like Mavenlink allow us to send our best minds off for a little well-earned R&R without losing a single day of work on a time-sensitive project.

When our senior graphic designer leaves for Australia at the end of April, she’ll be able to work from her laptop and share site mockups, logos, and custom graphics with her coworkers without confusing email chains or missed communication.

Technology is there to make our lives easier, better, and more enjoyable. For those among us who occasionally walk the wild side, cross hemispheres, and live out of a backpack on occasion, the only thing better than spending a worry-free week in the Outback is spending a week in the Outback knowing that you’ve got an open line of communication with clients and colleagues back at home. That’s enough of a technological advantage to put even the most hesitant amateur traveler at ease.

Make sure to check out Konnessi on both Facebook and Twitter to meet the Konnessi Team.

Project Management & Google Apps with American Honor

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:34:00 +0200

"American Honor uses Mavenlink as the center of our business process because everyone who uses it is impressed with the ease of use and advanced communication functionality." - Edgett Hilimire, Director of American Honor

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) – Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Edgett – American Honor is a self sustaining non-profit dedicated to directly employing home-bound wounded warriors. We employ wounded American veterans as dispatchers and quality assurance agents for technicians of various trades who are members of the American Honor Co-Op.

The American Honor Co-Op provides large organizations with access to local technicians to perform small projects. The warriors who work for us receive work orders from customers, dispatch the Co-Op techs, facilitate communication between the customer and tech, track the time and materials used on projects, and generate customer invoices on behalf of both the technician and Co-Op.

Q: Sean – How did you find Mavenlink?

A: Edgett – After a thorough search and trial of an online project management solution, we were relieved to find Mavenlink in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Q: Sean – How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Edgett – Mavenlink is the key to American Honor’s operations, providing a unified communication platform between our technicians and customers and employees. Without Mavenlink, we would be forced to implement an incomplete project management solution comprised of various incompatible databases which would not provide the necessary communication platform to allow wounded veterans to work from home. The Mavenlink integration with Google Apps is superb: removing the need for an expensive email/file/VPN server solution.

Q: Sean – Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink and Google Apps. How do you collaborate online with both?

A: Edgett – American Honor’s combination of Google Apps and Mavenlink allows our geographically dispersed home-bound wounded warriors to collaborate and consistently provide our customers with high-level of service, while simultaneously keeping customers informed of the status of their projects up to the minute.

American Honor makes heavy use of Google Apps; especially, Gmail and Google Docs, as an information storage and communication platform. The Mavenlink integration with Google Docs is an essential link to all information stored on projects.

American Honor can be found on Twitter and Facebook or you can contact American Honor directly.

Mavenlink Webinar 101 + 201

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:52:00 +0200

In this 30-minute Mavenlink Webinar followed by Q&A, we provide a high-level end-to-end walkthrough of our entire platform as it currently stands today starring the beloved Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute.

Our goal is to show you how to quickly set up your Mavenlink environment as you get ready to invite colleagues or clients, and also the breadth of the application once you are ready to go.

Mavenlink Webinar 101 & 201 from Sean Crafts on Vimeo.

We start off by covering the account page, managing your plan & billing, and setting up your customizable invoicing. We follow this by diving into our simple to use custom branding feature. After this, Michael is ready to work.

He has two options on how to start: setup a new project OR use a project template. He then invites his colleague, or "Assistant to the Project Creator", Dwight. Since he has integrated Mavenlink with Google Apps, he easily adds Dwight to the workspace.

Once they are both in the project workspace, there are five key areas to focus on:

Team, Budgets, Schedule & Payments
Project Collaboration (Project Feed)
Project Management (Project Tracker & Activities)
Managing the Project (Roles & Permissions)
Finance Center (Time Tracking, Expense Tracking & Invoicing)

As they jump into collaboration, Michael shows how to post messages, private messages, attach documents & Google Docs, linking to tasks, filtering with file management, and viewing attachments in the feed and the Project Tracker. Since some tasks have been assigned and been given a due date, he goes into his Google Calendar to make sure everything is synced between Mavenlink and Google and they are. While in his Google Apps email, he decides to reply to some Mavenlink posts and include attachments, along with originating posts via email with the email integration.

Back in the Workspace, Michael decides to invite his client, Jo Bennett. He wants to monitor what she can and can't see, so he goes into the permissions. After this, he shows off the time tracking, expense tracking, and invoicing features, along with how easy it is to mark an invoice as paid. Lastly, he shows off how easy it is to see everything with the dashboard features.

We follow up the webinar with a 20-minute Q&A, which we were asked many great questions. Needless to say, we are excited for the next webinar.

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We also posed the following four survey questions during the Webinar:

What topic would you most like to see covered in our next webinar? (3:00)
What soon to be released feature are you most excited about? (10:47)
Which feature do you rely on most within Mavenlink? (21:21)
What is your favorite way to interact with and/or learn about Mavenlink? (29:21)

What are you answers to the questions above?

Thanks to all those who attended our webinar. Feel free to contact us or drop a comment below if you have any questions or something you'd like to discuss.

Online Collaboration with Top 50 Ranches

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 06:31:00 +0200

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) – Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Jody Dahl – Top 50 Ranches is a ranch destination travel website designed to take the guesswork and confusion out of finding dude ranch vacations or other top ranch vactions at the most breathtaking, authentic and luxurious ranch and riding destinations in the world. We have ranches all across the United States, including California, Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming, along with top ranches in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina.

Q: Sean – How has Mavenlink helped your business?

A: Jody – As a small business owner, Mavenlink has directly helped me by making it easier to connect with my Top 50 Ranches team, which are primarily consultants working with me online in remote locations. We utilize Mavenlink as our platform for online collaboration in real time. I always feel completely informed and up-to-date and it's all in one easy-to-use, convenient workspace. I don't have to search through a slew of old emails. I can just easily visit our project workspace and find the exact conversation. Whether it’s information that I need for later use or if I need to refer back to my online team's expertise, it's always there at the touch of a button to quickly access. Also, I really like the fact that all payments can be made and are fully tracked through Mavenlink.

Q: Sean – Anything else you want to add?

A: Jody – Yes, Mavenlink is definitely an ideal, convenient location to manage my online projects for Top 50 Ranches. Before I jumped into Mavenlink, I didn't even realize this was an option for project management. I will definitely spread the word about Mavenlink as it is seriously worth the investment in this product. Anything that saves me time is something worth the minute financial expenditure this requires. I cannot speak highly enough about this product and recommend for other businesses to try it. Once you've tried it, you will be hooked for all your online business collaboration.

Jody Dahl and Top 50 Ranches can be found on Twitter and Facebook so go say hi and check out some of their amazing ranch vacations.

Mavenlink is Celebrating the Google Apps Marketplace’s 1st Birthday

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:51:00 +0200

Today marks the Google Apps Marketplace’s first birthday. While the Marketplace is only a year old, it has afforded Mavenlink several years worth of success already.

Currently, Mavenlink is the #2 ranked application in the Google Apps Marketplace Project Management category, the most installed application category in 2010. Mavenlink is consistently in the top-5 in Google’s “‘Tops’ in Google Apps” Top Weekly Installed Apps across all categories. We have been fortunate to also be included in major publications, stemming in large part from Google’s announcements of their Best of the Google Apps Marketplace in 2010 post. In that announcement, Google announced that Mavenlink was the 5th most installed app in all of 2010.

The Google Apps Marketplace delivers 1,500 new, high-quality business visitors to Mavenlink everyday. These outstanding visitors know what they are looking for, and are provided an easy method of application installation by Google. Since a large majority of these businesses are already Google Apps users, they convert to Mavenlink users at a very high rate to take advantage of the completeness of our integration with Google Apps.

To further illustrate our point on the quality of the traffic, take a look at these internal numbers:

Google Apps Marketplace visitors convert to Mavenlink users at a 4x higher rate than other channels.
On their initial visit, these visitors spend over 3x the amount of time on site versus all other channels.
The bounce rate on initial visits of Marketplace visitors is half that of all other channels.

The Marketplace and our integration with Google Apps are key product differentiators that we will continue to improve upon and expand. The Marketplace provides both Mavenlink and you (our users!) a rich ecosystem to seek complimentary technologies and partnerships where our products can interoperate on Google and be surrounded by like-minded companies.

So, Happy Birthday to the Google Apps Marketplace!

The entire Mavenlink team is excited to see what Year 2 holds in store and doing our part to continue its success and grow to be the #1 Project Management application. Come see Mavenlink in the Google Apps Marketplace!

“We have enjoyed our partnership with Google Apps, and the Google Apps Marketplace team, immensely. Together, we serve the needs of the same global market: the millions of small and medium-sized businesses who are rapidly embracing cloud computing and looking for a better way to manage their business. Mavenlink is determined to provide a comprehensive business application to extend Google Apps for every business user.” - Ray Grainger, CEO & Co-Founder of Mavenlink

Do our Business Metrics Matter?

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:55:00 +0200

Many of us spend our extremely limited time and energy trying to track our way into finding answers to our problems. We convince ourselves that in order to successfully grow our businesses we need to be tracking X, Y, and Z. We need to keep up with our Twitter and Facebook feeds as well as continually expand our list of “friends” and connections.

These issues come up at least once a week during discussions with members of our Northwest Freelancers Foundation. As freelancers and independent workers, we obsess over the notion that because something produces data, then it must be important and we should be tracking it. We end up with a list of services and subscriptions that really don’t contribute any positive value to our businesses.

Take an inventory of the metrics you track. Now, take a look at your list and ask yourself any of these questions for each metric:

What can I change now that have this data?
How does this contribute to my business?
Does this really matter?

The most important asset we have as independent workers is time. Time makes or breaks us. Sure, money is important too, but money can be earned when time is properly invested. Time has only two outcomes: you either lose it or you invest it, but you cannot regain lost time like you can lost money.

The internet and accompanying services have made it extremely easy to waste time. We constantly scour the web to find that golden nugget to re-tweet and share on Facebook. We create clever snippets that sound catchy, embed our shortened URL, publish and wait for the results to come in. We make it simple for visitors to subscribe to our newsletter or RSS feed, then we check on our new sign-ups and give ourselves a nice pat on the back. We check how many visitors our site had, where they are from, trace their source, and compare the numbers from the day or week before. A job well done.

The problem is that most of us are attempting to relate metrics such as site traffic, re-tweets, sign-ups, bounce rates to important things like sales, new accounts and even general interest in our services. Instead of delivering services or increasing revenue, we just chase ghosts and waste our time.

Metrics are important, don’t get me wrong, but the key is to focus on the few metrics that matter. Track metrics that have actionable outcomes. Add special offers to your tweets and blog posts so you can track sales or sign-ups directly generated from your offer. Use a funnel analysis to find out why people are leaving your site instead of requesting a quote or continuing through a sign-up form. These are generic examples but you get the idea. Track the things that matter in ways that directly impact your business.

Use your metrics to grow your business, not to give yourself a pat on the back. If your metric isn’t actionable then it likely isn’t very important either. Define your goals, define their values, then define your metrics. Invest some time this week to audit your metrics and define what matters.

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What are some business metrics you use?

Here are some more Freelance Posts:

Justin Knechtel is the Founder of The Small Potatoes, a non-profit design collective as well as the Executive Director of the Northwest Freelancers Foundation, a Seattle based non-profit dedicated to providing the tools, resources, and education freelancers need to grow their businesses. He just started using Twitter so go say hi @JustinKnechtel.

Link Coworking Partners with Mavenlink

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:02:00 +0200

We are really excited to announce our partnership with Link Coworking, which is a coworking facility located in Austin, TX.

Link Coworking brings together independent freelancers, entrepreneurs, and corporate employees who all have the need for a shared physical workspace to interact and conduct business. This shared space allows business people in different industries the ability to learn from each other, provide references, brainstorm, encourage one another, and link together.

We saw this as a obvious partnership, as we are able to connect our Mavenlink online project workspaces with Link Coworking's physical workspaces, providing a complete work environment for today's workforce.

As a result of this partnership, Link Coworking members will have access to discounted Mavenlink group rates, along with premier support and some other perks. In return, Link Coworking will help promote the benefits of Mavenlink's project management tool as a natural extension of their business, along with the pros, such as: increased efficiency, cohesive online work environment with clients and consultants, and ability to expand business.

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Have you ever worked at a coworking facility? If so, tell us about it. Also, if you have a business that you would like to partner with Mavenlink, just drop us a line in the comments below or email us at info@mavenlink.com.

Permissions: Manage Project

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:35:00 +0200

In this video tutorial, we cover Permissions. Through Mavenlink's "Manage Project" button in the Project Workspace, you can handle all of your Permissions:

Project Settings
User Roles
Client Access
Time Tracking, Expense Tracking & Invoicing Access
Budget Access
Invitation Access
Team Lead Control
Archiving Ability

This feature really helps allow people to invite their client in a project at any point and invite their entire team without worrying what they see and/or post as they have the ability to control the Permissions.

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What other Permission capabilities would you like to see?

How to Enhance Productivity in the Human Cloud

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:35:00 +0200

The way that people work is constantly evolving. As more and more people move to the Internet everyday for business, people are constantly connected. As a freelance editor and writer for The Next Web working solely online, Courtney Boyd Myers kept running into the same question: How do we enhance our productivity in the human cloud?

To answer this, Courtney turned to our CEO, Ray Grainger. Since Mavenlink was founded to give independent professionals and small businesses a project management tool to work globally and efficiently, she knew Ray would be the perfect person to ask.

Ray broke down his answer into seven points:

Stop juggling multiple point solutions.
Create a collaborative online work environment.
Give clients an easy way to answer their own questions.
Track all your project-related documents and communications in one place.
Make it easy to bring others into your project.
Need an intuitive, simple project management solution.
Streamline your billing.

You should definitely read the full Human Cloud post on The Next Web, as Ray dives deep into each of his seven points.

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How do you enhance your productivity in the human cloud?

New Feature: Project Posts and Working with Clients & Colleagues via Email

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:52:00 +0200

Love it or hate it, email is part of our daily lives. Despite its limitations, it's not going away any time soon. We agree with many of you that Mavenlink should be as seamlessly integrated with email as possible and still give the benefits of capture, clarity, and purpose that you expect out of a project management & productivity system. That's why we're in business!

We're really excited to be taking the first of many steps toward making email much more integrated into your workflow. Whether you're on your mobile device or in your mail client, you'll be able to drive a lot of collaboration directly from your email.

New feature: Attach files to emails for posting in projects

Although it's not reflected in our great feature request area (that you should be using more often!), one of our biggest requests has been allowing attachments to be posted in projects via email. We're excited to announce that this feature is launched and ready for you today.

The best part is you can keep using Mavenlink just as you have been, but now you can attach files to your replies and have them post in your project. Simply reply to a message notification and attach files via Gmail, Outlook, Mail.app, or your email client of choice, and the message with its attachments will be posted in your project workspace.

New feature: Email top-level posts (new threads) to projects

Another big request, which really surprised us, is that many of you wanted the ability to post top-level messages to a project. Since we were already in the code, we figured it would be a great time to make this work too! You'll see instructions in your email notifications and on the bottom-right of each one of your projects.

It looks like this:

We hope you enjoy these 2 big features and let us know how we can continually improve! Stay tuned for more features in this arena, including integrated features within Gmail & Google Apps.

Inspiring Small Business Lessons from NThreeQ Media

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:21:00 +0200

“Never, Never, Never Quit.” - Winston Churchill

I started my company in 2007 as a fresh 24-year-old MBA graduate who was undergoing thyroid testing for cancer. After the surgery proved that the growth was benign, I started thinking that at 24, my world could have easily and quickly changed – drastically.

I began moonlighting for about eight months before I had to make the choice to take the leap or stay in the corporate world. Thus, I jumped and started my company – NThreeQ Media.

My dad indirectly named my company – he wrote to me in a card once to, “Always remember N3Q.” Winston Churchill’s quote – “Never, Never, Never Quit.”

I am four years in the making; half a thyroid trying, woman entrepreneur who has successfully built a company that has had a steady upward growth. I have learned many lessons along the way and have kept a blog about all of the knowledge I have gained through valuable experience. Here is a recap of some of my most personal and valuable lessons:

In business, no one gets off scot-free

Rather than reflecting on the here and the now, focus more on opportunities and possibilities - truly change the way you think. Every time there is a negative or something that is difficult that comes up in business, I just focus more on the opportunities and possibilities that lie ahead.

Fight, fight and fight some more for balance

Work is number one. Clients are number one. Sleep and everything else is second. Fight for work/life balance and still take time for you, friends, family and animals. It is important to recharge – you aren’t any good to anyone if you are tired and stressed. I took my first vacation after 10 years – don’t wait that long.

Listen to all, and then evaluate to determine the best

Everyone has an opinion of how you should do things, what you are doing wrong, how you need to change, etc. I listen to one person in my life about business – my dad. He is my business advisor and the person that ultimately has my best interest in mind and nothing else.

There is seldom separation between business and personal

For a few months in 2010, nothing went right; between business and personal, I needed one thing to go right and it was just not going to happen. I found myself at a crossroads with a decision to make – push through or walk away. I've built a business on compassion where I put myself in my client’s shoes and walk their road to find a sensible solution. I hadn’t ever let my clients know what goes on in my life, but it was a hard few months and I could no longer push it aside. When I finally broke and told my clients what was going on, all understood and all were there for me. If I had just done that in the beginning it would have saved a lot of stress later on.

Doing business with friends

I learned that having a stronger plan, contract and understanding when you are working with friends is a necessity. Drawing solid lines and outlining expectations in writing will save the project and the friendship

Here are some other tidbits that have helped me in business:

Chase Bank – They love small businesses; their benefits and people are amazing and everything is cost effective.
Google Apps – It is an amazing item when dealing with emails and connecting people all over the place.
Postling – Best social media consolidation. We all have to do it, but do we have to log in to every single account? No more, send posts and blogs from one dashboard, schedule them for later and track visits and comments.
Mavenlink – Part of the Google Apps Marketplace, this solution is cost effective for project management all the while looking professional to your clients.

I hope that some of this information helps, I have learned many of things along the way some good, some not-so-good, but always necessary. At the end of the day, I do the only thing I can: order Chinese food and hope for a good fortune cookie.

To success!

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Angelina Gonzales is the Founder & President of NThreeQ Media. NThreeQ Media is a graphic design firm in Arizona that specializes in start-ups, non-profit organizations, restaurants, real estate companies, financial companies, among others. They are a full service organization offering graphic design, website design, branding and marketing. They can be found on both Facebook and Twitter.

7 Tips for Building a Successful Team of Freelancers

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:29:00 +0200

Earlier this month, our CEO Ray Grainger had a guest contribution on GigaOM's WebWorkerDaily. He discusses how the landscape of the workforce is changing as seemingly everything is moving online and becoming geographically dispersed. In addition, he covers 7 tips for building a successful team of freelancers.

Here are Ray's seven tips:

Set rules for the project, timelines and budget.
Create a collaborative online work environment.
Manage documents and conversations in a single place.
Stay on top of hours throughout the project lifecycle.
Accept changes.
Link invoicing to actual project management.
Offer career development and other services.

Make sure to visit WebWorkerDaily to read the post in full.

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What tips do you have for building a strong freelancing team? Are there any programs other than Mavenlink that you have used and suggest?

Freelance Nation Working Online

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 04:47:00 +0200

Bloomberg Businessweek interviewed longtime Mavenlink user, Kelly Parkinson of Copylicious, about the Freelance Nation and collaborating online. As the Founder of Copylicious, Kelly works with businesses to handle their copywriting, website design & development, and to improve the way her clients manage their overall business.

In the video below, Kelly talks about how she wanted to be a freelance copywriter and become location independent. She now handles around 100 projects per year. She has learned that projects tend to take longer, always require more project collaboration than anticipated, and business decisions need to be made together.

As a result, she needs to use an online workspace to keep all conversations and decisions in one place, which is why she uses Mavenlink. While jumping from project to project, Mavenlink allows Kelly to handle her wide spectrum of tasks and keep her clients involved.

In addition, she uses Google Apps and Mavenlink is integrated with Google Apps. Between Mavenlink and Google Apps, she is capable of working with website designers, developers, and other independent contractors to complete her teams and keep agile with whom she works with, her hours, and her daily schedule.

Follow Kelly Parkinson on Twitter (@copylicous) or subscribe to her rather entertaining Copylicious blog.

Collaborating & Growing Business with Copylicious

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:22:00 +0200

“Mavenlink allows me keep track of who's doing what, and when, and, most importantly, why. Now, I can compete for bigger business.” – Kelly Parkinson, Founder of Copylicious

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) – Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Kelly Parkinson – At Copylicious, sales through storytelling is the essence of what I do. Every client is different, but most businesses come away with a bunch of marketing tactics they actually want to do, copy they're proud of, and this feeling of, 'wow, I think I know what to say if anyone ever asks me what we do!' I also work with people to optimize their sales cycle, plugging in all the 'let me think about it' gaps. It's fun!

Q: Sean – Please explain the challenges that brought you to using a project management solution in Mavenlink.

A: Kelly – When I begin working with clients, the project’s process is very collaborative, but pretty loose. We don't always know exactly what we're going to do until we've spent some time talking through the client’s challenges and deciding on a course of action that feels best for them. We don't know exactly what they'll need, or which parts they'll take care of and which parts I'll take care of. Sometimes all we know is that something needs to launch on a particular date, and we just need to work backwards.

Mavenlink allows me keep track of who's doing what, and when, and, most importantly, why. I can see why decisions were made at each step, because the conversation and the tasks and the milestones and accompanying documents are all in one place. If the project is bigger than me, it's easy for me to loop in a team member or freelance consultant without needing to worry about getting them up to speed. They can join the project workspace and know exactly what is going on.

Q: Sean – Please explain the Results of using Mavenlink.

A: Kelly – Before Mavenlink, I think I held myself back from thinking bigger about my business and the possibilities for collaborating with other consultants. I didn't want to have to become a project manager or deal with sorting out who was doing what. Now that it's easy for me to work as a part of an ad hoc collective of independent consultants with Mavenlink as my project management solution, I can compete for bigger business. I don't have to become an agency to take on larger projects. I can loop in exactly the right people for each client. And when it's over, we can download the workspace PDF and disband.

Q: Sean – I know you integrate Mavenlink with Google Apps to help run your business. Are there other Google products you use?

A: Kelly - I use just about every Google product, either for myself or for my clients: Google Analytics, Adwords, Chrome, etc. Mavenlink is the only external product I use that is available in Google Apps Marketplace.

Q: Sean – How do you use Google Apps with Mavenlink together?

A: Kelly – My favorite feature is the Google Calendar sync, so my milestones and deadlines are automatically added to my Google Apps calendar, without having to constantly manually add and readjust them. One less thing for me to worry about.

Follow Kelly Parkinson on Twitter (@copylicous) or subscribe to her rather entertaining Copylicious blog.

Meet the Microworkers

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:52:00 +0200

"Microwork" means many different things to many different people. In a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article, "Meet the Microworkers", Rachael King defines it this way: "The trend, which goes by many names—crowdsourcing, the human cloud, microwork—uses the Internet to access workers around the world for short-term projects that pay a few bucks to hundreds of dollars per hour. The tasks might require a few minutes or a few days to complete."

For Mavenlink, we want to provide a comprehensive platform that supports project based work from start to finish, whether that is a few minutes, a few days, or a few months. As our CEO Ray Grainger mentioned in the article, Mavenlink was created as "an online workspace for independent workers so they can easily collaborate with others, keep track of multiple projects, and network with other high-level professionals."

With that goal in mind, there is nothing that makes us happier than seeing a Mavenlink user like Kelly Parkinson from Copylicious having success working with clients, running her own business, and living the independent dream. To Kelly, and all of you out there like Kelly, keep up the great work...we're here to help.

3 Keys to Freelance Success

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:30:00 +0200

I know a lot of freelancers who struggle just to get by. They want the stability and notoriety of being self employed, doing what you love, and having a steady stream of income. So they leave the corporate world and start freelancing, but often find the process harder than they imaged.

Here are three steps to helping you succeed and grow your freelance business this year:

Define Your Focus

When many of us begin our freelance careers, the first thing we do is fire up Google and find out what everyone else is doing. We click around from portfolio to portfolio, bounce from one tutorial site to another, and chase link after link only to eventually find yourself back where you started - still searching.

We justify this in our minds because we convince ourselves that we’re just checking out the competition. We’re keeping up with current trends. We’re taking a break from work. We’re researching to grow our business and the freelance economy. The list goes on simply because we allow these excuses to capture us.

Stop following what everyone else is doing and start focusing on your own business. Trying to keep up with the next trend and living the copy and paste life is a recipe for failure. By continually trying to fit in you lose focus on who you are and your long-term goals. You can’t establish any sort of future on a foundation of following. Define and understand your focus first, then say no to the external influences that pull you away from that focus.

Refresh Your Services Menu and Partner Up

There are those who collaborate and there are those that burn out and fall apart. Everyone knows that two heads are better than one, yet many of us think we can do it all ourselves. If you’re one of the “Multidisciplinary” freelance types that offers design, photography, content writing, copy editing, technology consulting, dog walking, and illustration services, you may as well just start filling out some resumes and submitting them during your ample downtime and missed deadlines.

Consolidate your overwhelming list of services and take your top two skills to focus your business on. Partner with others that are excel on the missing pieces. If you’re a content writer, partner with a skilled illustrator. If you take great photographs, start looking for some graphic designers that create wedding invitations. By leveraging each other’s time, the two of you will be able to complete bigger projects in a shorter amount of time and earn more money.

The second part of this is that you need to be part of a trusted network of professionals. Step outside of your discipline and start joining other networks to help foster some collaborative opportunities. If you’re a photographer, you aren’t going to find much photography work when you are only networking with other photographers. You have to branch out to other fields where you can add to their services and vice-versa.

Think Long-Term By Staying In The Present

Make everything you do a project and commit to a deadline. If you are writing a book, then set a deadline and stick to it. If it’s nice outside and your friends want to meet at the park, finish your work that you’ve defined for the day before you go out. We have to learn to say no to ourselves and the influences that have a negative impact on our businesses.

If a client has commissioned you for work and the deadline is February 20th, then set the deadline for February 16th and just get the job done. This doesn’t give you four days to play with, it gives you till the 16th. “Under promise and over deliver” is a disease best not caught. Just deliver what you promise and you’ll be rewarded.

Just because we have tools to be connected all the time is not justification for doing so. Turn off the gadgets, ignore client emails, shut down the update feeds, and just get your work done. If you are serious about growing your freelance business, then buckle down and take action. Projects won’t get done unless you are working on them now.

Freelancing is tough and can be a very trying and stressful experience at times. It’s so easy for us to lose our focus and just call it quits like many do every day. If we start treating freelancing more like a business rather than something we do, the focus shifts a bit and the energy and passion will start flowing again.

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Justin Knechtel is Founder and CEO of The Small Potatoes, a design collective that provides services to small businesses and non-profits through a network of freelance professionals. He lives in Seattle with his fiance and their two-year old son. He just started using his personal Twitter @justinknechtel and you should follow The Small Potatoes as well @small_potatoes. Go say hi!

Affiliate Program

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 02:11:00 +0200

This video covers the Mavenlink Affiliate Program. Here users can make money by referring others. For each paid referral, you will receive 100% of the first month's payment and 10% of each subsequent payment for life. Also, any new user you invite to a project workspace or network is automatically tracked as a referral.

Mavenlink provides a custom affiliate link, Twitter and Facebook suggestions for social media promotions, along with banners and text ads, which can all be edited to fit the needs of your blog or website. On top of that, there is Referral Tracking to keep an overview of the number of clicks, referrals, paid referrals, earnings to date, and earnings paid out to date.

If you are a Google Apps Reseller, you can go through our Affiliate Program or contact us if you would like to purchase a bundle of subscriptions at info@mavenlink.com.

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Have you started referring people to Mavenlink via the Affiliate Program? If so, which methods have you found work best?

Project Templates

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0200

This tutorial shows you how to simply create Project Templates within Mavenlink. Especially with recurring projects, the ability to create templates with your Project Tracker items (tasks, deliverables, and milestones) make this project management solution that much more efficient.

You can create a new Project Template from scratch or base it off of an existing project workspace. You can also edit other templates the exact same way and with our simple drag-and-drop technology, it makes everything even easier to create.

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Have you created a Project Template in Mavenlink? Are most of your project recurring or usually one-off projects?

10 Things Mavenlink Users Want to Know

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 06:00:00 +0200

As we continue to expand our support channels to care for our user base that has rapidly grown to over 30,000 businesses, we have been fielding questions from all over the place. I don't just mean questions from the United States, India, and the Isle of Man, but questions such as "How do you differentiate yourselves from your competitors?" to "Are you a real person?" are asked all the time.

Here are some of the questions we get regularly, starting with arguably the most important question...

1) How is Mavenlink different from the competitors?

Mavenlink is an end to end project management solution. We are the only solution focused on providing robust project collaboration and project management features PLUS time tracking, expense tracking, invoicing, currency localization, and online payments to the small and mid-sized businesses.

Work and get paid in one place.

2) What financial features do you offer?

As mentioned above, we have time time tracking, expense tracking, and invoicing. These are all integrated with PayPal as well so you can pay and get paid all within Mavenlink. In fact, time tracking and invoicing are two of our most popular features.

3) Can I work in a currency other than US Dollars?

As mentioned above, we added currency localization. This allows you to work, track time, invoice, and get paid in every currency in the entire world. On top of that, it is fully integrated with all of the currencies that PayPal supports. What would a Project Management solution in the cloud be if you couldn't work in every currency in the world?

4) How can I make feature requests?

We have been trying to promote our Feature Requests forum (hint: click that link ) as we love hearing from our users. If you are a Mavenlink user, follow the link and submit your requests there. We are always brainstorming new ideas and ways to improve, but just like us, you are using constantly using Mavenlink so we want to hear from you.

5) How can I test Mavenlink?

Open a Test Drive Project Workspace with us. The Test Drive will automatically invite some of the Mavenlink team to help get you started and answer any questions you may have.

6) Can I respond to messages via email?

Yes. This was one of our first features when we launched, but somehow our email integration has been overlooked. Reply to any message via email from your computer or smartphone.

7) Can I view important dates and tasks within Mavenlink?

With the new Mavenlink dashboard that we rolled out last month, it is now easier than ever to view past due work, upcoming work, pending invoices, and the latest messages from your project workspaces. Also, you can filter the view for any client, contractor, or employee.

8) Do you integrate with Google Apps?

Yes, we integrate with the full Google Apps suite. Along with your business Google Apps email or Gmail account, we are fully integrated with Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts.

In addition, the Google Apps team announced the best of the Google Apps Marketplace in 2010 and we finished #5 out of the entire marketplace. This news was so big that PC World, TechCrunch, and ReadWriteWeb all picked up the story. Click here to see the Mavenlink Google Apps listing.

9) How much does it cost to integrate Mavenlink with Google Apps?

Nothing. How do you like that price? Not only do we make it extremely easy to integrate Mavenlink and Google Apps, but all Mavenlink plans have the full Google Apps integration included.

10) Can I submit a Guest Contribution?

Of course. Just email us at info@mavenlink.com. We are always looking for Guest Contributions. Whether you want to submit an original post about today's working world or have us interview you or express how Mavenlink has helped your business, we are open to many types of contributions.

Guest Contributions for Small Businesses & Freelancers

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 09:24:00 +0200

As we have noted on our Guest Contributions page, we want to hear from our users and Mavenlink users want to hear from fellow users. Whether you want to write about general small business tips to changes you've seen in the technology world to your own business, spread the word here.

With nearly 10,000 views every month and growing on our Community page and over 25,000 businesses using Mavenlink, this is a great way to get your message in front of a large audience of businesses. Plus, like everyone else in our community, we want to hear a fresh take on what is happening with small businesses around the world.

Currently, many of our Guest Contributions center around different user's companies and Mavenlink. We have case studies with small businesses like Moxie Marketing and charities like Mending Limbs. We have personally crafted creative posts by other small businesses like Konnessi and Mold Busters on how Mavenlink has helped them.

We really enjoy all of these posts and will continue to publish them, but they all don't have to include Mavenlink. Maybe you have some accounting advice for freelancers. Maybe your company has some online marketing tips for small businesses. Maybe your business has some impressive achievements to share. Trust us, we want to hear!

We will link to your website and articles that you cite. Whether you want to write something original or have us write a case study on your company, please let us know!

Contact Mavenlink: info@mavenlink.com

TechCrunch "Google: Over 4 Million Users Have Downloaded at Least One Marketplace App"

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:43:00 +0200

Covering Google's post of the best of the Google Apps Marketplace, Leena Rao highlights the progress of the Google Apps Marketplace and the most successful Google Apps of 2010, which includes Mavenlink.

Even though we didn't launch with the initial Google Apps Marketplace launch, we managed to finish as the #2 most downloaded app in the top installed category, Project Management. On top of that, we finished as the #5 most downloaded app in the entire Google Apps Marketplace.

Thanks to everybody for making this possible and our new goal is to be the #1 app in 2011. We have been extremely happy with the Google Apps Marketplace and our success is providing us with even more motivation to keep working hard.

Dashboard Features

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:57:00 +0200

This video is an overview of the Mavenlink dashboard features, which gives you a great snapshot of past due work, upcoming work, pending invoices, and the latest messages from your project workspaces. We also implemented features such as search and a user filter to help navigate through Mavenlink even easier.

I am showing you the Dashboard through a Custom Branded login, but the features will work the same with any login.

Great Show: GigaOM’s “Net:Work, The Future of Work”

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 19:25:00 +0200

There’s nothing like mingling with 700+ of your new closest friends at a conference and coming to the realization that there is something of a shared mind. Of course everyone has a different take on what technologies are needed or how to best help, but universally there is agreement on one common theme: the world of work is changing, and both people and the technologies that support those people are being forced to shift. Having the opportunity to participate in this discussion was a great experience for the entire Mavenlink team.

Like any show, there were plenty of buzzwords flying about, “Social”, “Collaboration”, “Mobile”, “Real Time”, “Cloud Software”, “Fundamental Shifts”, “Crowdsourcing”, “Co-Working”, “Outsourcing”, “Flat Organizations” and/or “Flat World”. In truth, I used them as much as anyone. But beyond the buzzwords, there was a very real sense that everyone at the show was genuinely excited to be a part of this new working world, a working world that is being shaped by more than pure economics or technology. Society at large is shifting and bringing along the workplace, “We are moving into a new society where people want to share and manage information in an new way…in a flat world…transparency builds trust,” borrowing Marc Benioff’s words taken from his speech during the show.

I think everyone walking away from the show would agree that the core of the movement is the individual. It was great to talk to a number of established and/or new organizations that are building great practices and/or businesses that are catering to the needs of this new workforce of ones. Nima Adelkhani and The Founder Institute helping entrepreneurs get their dreams off the ground. Nate Heasley and the team at New Work City building not only co-working spaces but also communities of independents across New York City.

If you had to reduce it down to a sentence, I think Simon Mackie summed it up pretty well. At the end of the day, the new world of work, and success in the new world, is going to boil down to how well we can connect, communicate and collaborate WITH PEOPLE.

Test Drive Project Workspace

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:38:00 +0200

This video is a quick overview on how to create a Test Drive Project Workspace to test Mavenlink. I am showing this from a Custom Branded view, but that is to just show off that feature and you can get to the Test Drive the same even if you don't have Custom Branding.

From your Project Workspace or anywhere else on the site, click the "Home" tab to get to your Dashboard. Once on your Dashboard, click the "Getting Started" tab and then click the "Test Drive" button. From there, you will be thrown into a Project to test out all of the features.

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Have you tested a Test Drive Project Workspace? Is there anything you liked, didn't like, or found most helpful? We love feedback.

Mavenlink Makes its Mark on Mold

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:37:00 +0200

Now more than ever, it is crucial for businesses to keep up with the ongoing changes that are taking place in the digital world. It is the time for change—for businesses to let go of their old practices and implement revolutionary new methods of doing business online.

The whole idea behind switching over to a more modern and web-based style is to conduct the same business in a way that is easier, faster, more convenient, and in the end, more logical.

This period also gives rise to opportunity. Those who are able to seize this opportunity will doubtless emerge as winners in the end.

At Mold Busters, a Canadian company that specializes in air quality testing and mold removal, we know that we have already won. Thanks to Mavenlink.

We have created the most reputable and rapidly expanding mold remediation company in Canada. Recently, in an effort to streamline our business processes, reduce costs, save time, and optimize efficiency, we started implementing Mavenlink in all our day-to-day customer communications.

The results have been excellent, to say the least. Not only are we able to communicate quickly and efficiently with clients, franchisees and other staff members, but we are also able to expand our business, offering more to clients and adding value to our services.

We feel that Mavenlink opens doors for the growth of our business and sets us apart from other companies. Moreover, our clients have been more than impressed with the “special treatment” they have been receiving as a result of the Mavenlink system.

Indeed, the beauty of Mavenlink is its simplicity and versatility. It is a great tool for businesses all over the world to streamline their operations and make communication faster and easier than ever.

Mavens and Salesmen and Connectors, Oh my!

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:30:00 +0200

In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes “mavens” as “information specialists…people we rely upon to connect us with new information.” Mavens, Connectors, and Salesmen are the three different “agents of change” Gladwell identifies as starting popular trends.

While we can’t speak for all of the businesses using Mavenlink’s project management platform, we at Konnessi, LLC like to think of ourselves as the Mavens of the web development business. Through experience, business savvy, and plenty of “team building” activities centered around Call of Duty: Black Ops, we’ve become “agents of change” for our clients, building web presence, managing coordinated social media strategy, and maximizing return on web marketing investments for companies in a variety of sectors—all between frequent trips to the local coffee shop.

Our Achilles’ heel was that our Mavens had trouble working efficiently together. Our programmers and graphic artists (and even the lowly blog writers) were getting sidetracked and distracted, our project managers were frustrated, and our clients weren’t getting the top-notch service we had promised. We were still a group of Mavens, but we had trouble connecting. And when “connected” is literally your name (‘konnessi’ is the Maltese word for ‘connected’), that’s a big problem.

We had our Mavens. We had our Salesmen. Our Gladwellian trifecta was just missing a Connector.

With our trademarked Intellectual Equity Infusion™ deals sputtering, it became clear that we needed to cooperate if we were going to help our clients recognize their upside potential. We needed a tool to help our Mavens collaborate. (Well, we had a way, technically. But unfortunately it required an Xbox and led to interoffice rivalries.) We needed Mavenlink.

Once we had all joined the Mavenlink online workspace (and once we’d convinced the programmers to stop trying to earn experience points on it), completing projects was a cinch. It wasn’t that the platform did the work for us—although we certainly wouldn’t complain if that had been the case. It was just that we were able to track deadlines, organize and share information, and stick to SOP far more easily than we had before. We could invite our clients to join their project spaces, swap ideas, and brainstorm using the project feed. There were no more excuses for “forgetting” a particularly boring task. And because the timeline makes project deadlines transparent, we all had an extra incentive to stay on top of our work.

For the Konnessi team, Mavenlink was the missing link—it was the tool we needed to take our business plan and our talent from “good” to “OH MY!” After all, our clients were counting on us to collect and share knowledge about the marketplace like the Mavens that we are.

So even though we spend less time conducting covert missions behind enemy lines these days, it’s because we’re putting our unique web-business hybrid model to work. And that can definitely be considered a mission accomplished.

The Next Web: Mavenlink brings Project Management to your Network

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:38:00 +0200

Last night, The Next Web technology writer Tris Hussey covered Mavenlink and discussed how we are a project management solution for many issues that businesses face. Below are a couple quotes from Tris:

"So, Mavenlink, it is an 'end to end' project management solution. Which is marketing speak for 'everything I said you needed above, it has.'"

"Mavenlink is built from the premise that a lot of us work in ad hoc collaborative groups more and more and our project management tool needs to allow for that. For any given project you can add more people to the project while still giving your client a single point contact (and webspace if you’re working with them on several projects)."

"What Mavenlink is really trying to do, I think, is just give us a nice, simple set of tools, to be able to pull together folks to work on projects as we needed them. Also, via searching through the network of public profiles, you can find people to potentially help you with projects and see who they have worked with in the past."

Make sure to check out the article in full on The Next Web.

ReadWriteWeb: Mavenlink Announces White Label Project Management

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:37:00 +0200

Shortly after The Next Web's post on Mavenlink, ReadWriteWeb's John Paul Titlow covered Mavenlink's custom branding. John Paul keeps his post short and sweet, highlighting what he calls White Label Project Management. Below are some quotes:

"Mavenlink goes beyond standard project management and collaboration and handles time tracking, invoicing, expense tracking and even managing insurance options."

"Indeed, the company touts its solution as an "end-to-end" business management suite for smaller businesses. With its most expensive plan listed at $79/month, it's certainly within budgetary reach for many small businesses, although enterprise-level accounts are also available."

Make sure to read John Paul's entire post on ReadWriteWeb.

Expanding our Support Offerings

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 02:21:00 +0200

If you haven’t noticed, we truly enjoy talking to our Mavenlink users. On any given day you are likely to find our CEO Ray Grainger taking incoming phone calls, or our core software engineers responding to emails at support@mavenlink.com. Of course this is driven by our desire to be highly responsive, but just as importantly, we learn a ton from just about every conversation we have.

With over 20,000 businesses now using Mavenlink, it was time to launch live chat throughout the site and create a robust Support Page that includes:

Community Forums – we learn things from our users everyday; it was time to open up a forum for everyone to benefit.
Feature List – now everyone can see the features that your fellow users are requesting, vote on existing feature requests, and add new ones. This has always been the key driver of our development decisions, now it is even easier for our users to add their input.
FAQs – an easy way to tap into solutions to known issues
Ticket Management – will provide more visibility into open support requests, where they stand, and who is working on them from the Mavenlink side.

Many thanks to the team at SnapEngage for the outstanding chat software and to the team at Zendesk for developing a great piece of customer support software, we think you will find both of them as intuitive to use as we have.

Also, while live chat and the new support site bring a number of new features, all of the old channels are still available. You can still find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Get Satisfaction. The Test Drive Workspaces are still available for anyone to test out the project workspaces and interact with our team. And last, but not least, for those paying subscribers, your personal Mavenlink representative is always at your service.

Tweet us for a Chance at 6 Months Free

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:19:00 +0200

With the Holidays just around the corner, Mavenlink would like to give back to some of our great users. We are giving away 6 FREE months of our Business Plan ($474 value).

Follow and tweet us with the hashtag #mavenholiday any of the following subjects:

Your favorite Mavenlink features (eg. Time Tracking, Custom Branding, Local Currency, Business Collaboration),
Features you would like to see in Mavenlink,
How Mavenlink has helped your business, or
Products you use along with Mavenlink

For every 100 unique individuals who tweet us, we will award one user a Free 6-month subscription to our Business Plan, a $474 dollar value. Pretty easy, right?

Feel free to enter as many times as you'd like and pass this information along to friends and colleagues as they can win on your behalf.

All tweets must be completed by 12/20. All of the winners will receive the Business Plan completely free from January 2011 through the end of June 2011.

Don't forget to follow us to be eligible. Good luck & Happy Holidays!

Follow Mavenlink on Twitter: @Mavenlink

Google Apps and Mending Limbs Web Collaboration Interview

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 07:15:00 +0200

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - What is Mending Limbs?

A: Michelle - Mending Limbs Organization was created to help raise awareness of the Amputee Coalition of America as well as the advocacy for adequate prosthetic coverage in the United States. Laws are needed to help amputees live full independent lives. Yearly events are held to raise money to assist amputees in paying for prosthetics not covered by their insurance. Mending Limbs was founded in 2008 by Michelle Gilligan-Prichard and her husband Jared. Mending Limbs Organization is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Q: Sean - What Google products do you use?

A: Michelle - Mavenlink allows us to collaborate online, share files all inside one end-to-end App. With integrations to Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts, Google Apps users are able to leverage the benefits of this project management suite

Gist - Mending Limbs uses Gist to get social intelligence about the important customers, business partners, and contributors and better understand their market.

Google Apps for Non-profit: Mending Limbs uses for project communication, and collaboration, including email accounts, docs, and calendars . With Google Apps, Mending Limbs has increased its efficiency and enabled easy access to its infrastructure from any computer or mobile device with Internet access. Without a dedicated IT staff Google Apps for Non-profit has enabled them to grow without the IT headaches and costs.

Google Grants via Adwords: The Google Grants program has enabled Mending Limbs to achieve their goals by helping them promote their websites via advertising on Google for keywords related to its cause. Some keywords include Amputee, Mending Limbs, Prosthetics. They are getting increased exposure, broadening their influence, and increased donations. Google AdWords ads appear when users search on Google for Amputee related phrases which take them to the Mending Limbs site.

Google Analytics: Mending Limbs uses this powerful, flexible and easy-to-use tool to help analyze global and local traffic data. This data helps the organization serve its donors and beneficiaries more effectively and be more efficient with their online promotions. Google Analytics allows mending limbs to improve the content and the experience as well as provide insight into where the web traffic is coming from.

Q: Sean - What was your Primary Challenge?

A: Michelle - Mending Limbs is a new Non-profit with a limited budget, small staff and a huge market need. There is tremendous need for their services, and a small staff spread out across the Country. The projects and collaboration demands began to get very complicated and time consuming. Mending Limbs has board members, consultants, advisers, and business partners in different geographic areas that need to collaborate on all different kinds of projects, from web development to benefit concerts. Finding a low cost efficient platform that is easy to manage and scale without significant cost.

Q: Sean - How did Google Apps for Non-Profit, Mavenlink and others help you?

A: Michelle - With the Google Apps Marketplace, Google Apps for Non-profit, Mavenlink.com, Gist, Google Adwords, and Google Analytics Mending Limbs now has a FREE scalable business process management infrastructure that can be used to efficiently run a lean non-profit organization.

Mending Limbs uses Mavenlink to manage projects, share documents and calendars with both internal and external partners all over the United States.

Mending Limbs has seen significant improvements in efficiency, saving time and money while gaining valuable traffic and understanding of their entire web presence. We have seen a 220% increase in web Traffic from Google Grants, and increased collaboration. We have also added 7 additional email addresses without IT.

“Google Apps for Non-Profit, Mavenlink, and Google Grants have been some of the most exciting technology improvements we have made, but we are only scratching the surface. There is almost unlimited potential with Google Apps, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, and Mavenlink. We are very excited for what the future holds." - Michelle Gilligan-Prichard, Founder of Mending Limbs

Follow Mending Limbs on Twitter: @MendingLimbs

Mending Limbs on Facebook:

Currency Localization

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 01:35:00 +0200

This video easily demonstrates how you can change your currency to any country in the world. From the English Pound and Canadian Dollar to India Rupees and Laos Kip, we support all currencies.

The settings can easily be changed in your account settings. You can change your billable currency, track time and invoice, and change the currency on a project-by-project basis. It was very important to us for our users to have the ability to change the currency on a project-by-project basis because many of our users collaborate on projects with people around the entire world.

On top of all that, with our PayPal integration and PayPal supporting all major currencies, you can now invoice and get paid easier than ever all in Mavenlink.

We are very excited about this and look forward to everybody's feedback. We want you to be able to manage your projects in one application regardless of location so please let us know what other features you are looking for.

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What currency do you usually work with? If you work with multiple currencies, let us know.

Essential Project Collaboration Tool

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:02:00 +0200

“Mavenlink has become an essential part of how we run our business." - Rick L'Amie, President of Moxie Marketing

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Rick L’Amie - Moxie Marketing, which is located in Austin, Texas, helps small businesses and service professionals realize their business dreams with simple, affordable and effective marketing consulting and creative services. Placing an emphasis on strategy before tactics, Moxie Marketing is powered by the Duct Tape Marketing System™, the world’s most practical small business marketing system. A certified Duct Tape Marketing consultant works one-on-one and in groups with small business owners to develop a systematic approach to marketing their business. Then, we equip them with tools, tactics and creative materials, including branding, advertising, direct marketing, public relations, referral systems, content creation, web site design, brochures, email marketing, search engine marketing and optimization, and more.

Q: Sean - Can you explain why you needed a Project Management solution when you found Mavenlink?

A: Rick - We employ two full-time employees, but manage a trusted network of marketing professionals, including graphic designers, copywriters, SEO and SEM professionals. Although this model allows us to reduce overhead and pass the savings on to clients, it does create logistical hazards. We tested a number of project collaboration tools to try to manage our project work, but found that the solutions were too complicated and cumbersome. In addition, we used multiple and disparate technologies to manage time tracking, expense tracking, and invoicing to augment our project collaboration tools. As a Google Apps user, we also wanted to make sure whatever tool we used easily integrated with Google Apps, allowing for ease of use and a single sign-on.

Q: Sean – What have you been able to achieve since joining Mavenlink?

A: Rick - We have turned ourselves into a virtual agency, building lasting customer relationships and establishing a network of providers that can be trusted to deliver great work. We manage all work, communications, and business transactions through the Mavenlink platform.

We now invite clients and trusted subcontractors into our Mavenlink project workspaces. Permissions and the intuitive nature of workspaces enable everyone to stay on the same page while maintaining appropriate controls to ensure the client relationships remain strong.
We are able to track expenses easily within Mavenlink, reducing the need for multiple tools.
Invoicing now is simple. With one click within the Mavenlink platform, we can issue an invoice and tie the cost to project work. Each line item can be associated with activity listed within a collaborative workspace, where clients engage throughout the project, creating a powerful link between costs and value delivered.

Q: Sean – Is there anything else you want to add about the results your company has experienced from using Mavenlink?

A: Rick - Since switching to Mavenlink, we have increased our efficiency and productivity in a powerful system that integrates seamlessly into its Google Apps environment. Rather than tracking through or losing email strings, all client and partner activities are captured in one space, including communications, documents, milestones, tasks and projects. Clients have become more accountable and responsive to action items assigned to them. In addition, while overall activity has increased, client satisfaction also has continued to rise. One of our clients recently commented, “When I first got what appeared to be an invitation to yet another ‘collaboration tool’, I wanted no part of it. Now that I am in this system working with you though, I really like it.”

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Don't forget to follow Rick & Moxie Marketing on Twitter: @MoxieMarketing

If you would like to tell your Mavenlink story, let us know in the comments below or email us at contact@mavenlink.com.

Custom Private Label Branding

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:10:00 +0200

This video is an introduction to our Custom Private Label Branding. From uploading your Header & Logo to Color Themes with pre-identified colors based on your Logo to Custom Favicons & URLs, Mavenlink offers an extremely high-quality custom branding experience to help get your clients & service providers working within your system.

We will host everything for you, but your Project Workspace will appear as part of your site.

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What other Custom Branding features would you like to see in a Custom Branded Project Management tool? We love to hear our users feedback so don't be shy.

Video: 3 Factors Leading to Higher Employee & Subcontractor Performance

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 16:20:00 +0200

This lecture by Daniel Pink and associated video illustration is just awesome. It provides a compelling argument that, for non-menial work...for work that actually requires cognitive and creative thought, money is not the principal motivator, nor is it even an effective motivator.

As discussed, people are motivated by 3 major things:

Autonomy: The desire to be self-directed. As Daniel says, "let me get out of your way!" is often a big motivator.

Mastery: The urge to get better at stuff. It's satisfying to get better at things we do, right? Why else would we choose to use our weekends playing instruments, doing hobbies, etc...?

Performance: If we allow Autonomy and Mastery, we allow people to perform at their best. Nobody wants to be ridden like a horse.

Mavenlink's organization looks a lot like this - we don't have time to second-guess every decision, nor do we want to. There are times when we all need to agree on things, but by and large, we do what we need to individually to provide our users the best experience.

This is also reflected in how we're building the platform. Open. Collaborative. Simple.

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After watching this video, how can you better motivate yourself, your employees, your subcontractors? How can we better enable you to do that through our technology? We'd love to hear.

Increasing Efficiency in the Virtual Workplace

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:07:00 +0200

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Justin Knechtel - The Small Potatoes is a Seattle based non-profit design collaborative. We provide website design and hosting services to the small business and non-profit community in the Northwest. We're made up of established freelancers and use all of our proceeds to provide the tools, education, and resources needed to help high school students interested in digital media explore their love of design and to help them pursue a degree and career within the digital arts.

Q: Sean - Can you explain why you needed a Project Management solution when you found Mavenlink?

A: Justin - As the saying goes, “time is money” and we were in need of a product to help us better collaborate with our clients, subcontractors, and freelancers. Our goal was simple: Increase Efficiency.

We tried several other Project Management products, but for one reason or another, they hurt more than they helped. Some Project Management products we tried flooded Small Potatoes with useless features that just made the product more complex than it needed to be. This of course led to situations where it cost us time to train clients and subcontractors instead of saving time. Clients and subcontractors kept sending emails outside of the workspaces, nullifying our goal of managing these projects in one virtual location.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some tools stopped short of building out a complete platform, offering a couple of valuable features, but not enough breadth to impact efficiency. We ended up with double logins, double entries and double effort, exactly the things we were trying to eliminate.

Also, as a Google Apps users, we wanted something that integrated well with Google Apps. For every Small Potatoes client, we recommend and offer to set up and manage a Google Apps account for them. We don’t charge or make money on this, instead benefiting from Google providing excellent tools that truly help small businesses (our clients) work more efficiently and reduce costs, which ultimately reduces the level of customer support we need to provide. Also, if our clients are using the same tools we are then we can be more proactive with suggestions, updates and problem fixes. All of this allows us to continually be in front of our clients and establishes us as the experts.

We wanted to ensure that we could leverage our own Contacts, Docs and Calenders, and that they would remain in sync and updated as we worked with our clients and freelancers.

Q: Sean - How has your experience been so far with Mavenlink?

A: Justin - With so many folks on our team, we needed a solid Google Docs integration and simple posting capabilities for all types of attachments, which Mavenlink has provided. In your product, we found the great client management “wrapper” we were looking for to put around all of the Google Apps we currently use. In addition, we needed a solution that our users could quickly adopt with confidence knowing that all of their sensitive data and conversations would be secure.

We really like the ease in which we can jump in and began getting work done in the system, and loves that we no longer have to spend time training clients or freelancers on how to use our project management solution. And for those clients that just can’t let go of email, we are glad that Mavenlink’s email integration allows them to participate actively in projects without ever having to let go of their Blackberry or smartphone. Instead of training others, we are now freeing up time to spend on our many other priorities, such as keeping clients happy and business development. We can conduct business better.

Another key capability for us was the ability to manage permissions and controls within the platform. As the team lead, we want access controls to keep everything centralized, but also subject to the appropriate views and access permissions, which keeps everybody happy and more productive. Now that everyone is safely working together within one system, we can easily track time, expenses and create online invoices using your intuitive finance center. By bringing all of these capabilities under one login, we have removed the “double login, double entry, double effort” effect.

Q: Sean - Can you give us specific results from using Mavenlink?

A: Justin - Our efficiency has increased tremendously. At a minimum, we figure that Mavenlink has freed up 20-25% of time per week. We did not expect this much benefit coming in, and are still amazed at the efficiency gains. To put it simply, “Our business collaboration capabilities flow so much smoother across all of the project we manage”.

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At a Glance

What Small Potatoes wanted to do:

Increase efficiency around project collaboration, time & expense tracking, invoicing and payment processes
Find a secure, easy to use environment to work with clients and freelancers online
Integrate online workplace with Google Apps

What they did:

Used Mavenlink’s online workplace to manage a team of over 40 freelancers and 50+ active projects
Create secure project workspaces for his clients and freelancers to interact, track time, track expenses, invoice and finalize payments online

What they achieved:

20-25% time savings each week
Delivered over 98% of his projects on time and on budget
Happy clients and freelancers

Communicating with Clients in Print & Online Marketing

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:33:00 +0200

In this video, Brian Leimone of Nu expression discusses his company, why his company uses Mavenlink, and how his company uses Mavenlink.

Brian is responsible for the Web & Social Media at Nu expression, which provides solutions for graphic, print, social media, and web design. Located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, their job is to work with clients from beginning to end to support marketing needs, both online and print.

According to Brian, "We're using the Mavenlink system to communicate between clients and designers. We've chosen to use Mavenlink because it's above anything else that's out there today." At Mavenlink, we are always happy to hear such positive feedback from our users, and are equally pleased to hear Brian tell us that his clients have embraced our product just the same.

Some other items of Mavenlink that Brian lists that have helped improve his work collaboration and communication are: ease of use, ability to reply straight from email, and the payment system with online invoicing and time tracking.

We hope you enjoy the video and don't forget to follow Nu expression on Facebook and Twitter.

Mavenlink Launches Time Tracking, Expense Tracking and Online Invoicing Software

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 01:55:00 +0200

We are excited to release our Time Tracking, Expense Tracking and Online Invoicing capabilities. Adding these capabilities to the existing Mavenlink site creates a uniquely comprehensive and efficient platform to complete project based work online. Now in one place you can:

Securely manage communications and collaborate with all of your colleagues, clients, subcontractors and/or partners
Share files or Google Docs relevant to a particular project, capturing conversations surrounding each piece
Manage all of your activities in the Project Tracker, including prioritization and assignment of key tasks, deliverables and milestones
Establish budgets and timelines, complete with appropriate change order management for shifts in direction
Manage permissions for project team members, controlling access to make sure only appropriate information is visible
Simply track all of your time and expenses associated with a project, tied to specific tasks or deliverables
Create professional invoices, adding time and expenses through one simple click
Get paid online
Create profiles and networks to manage your reputation and/or future opportunities

Work Green with Google Docs

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:51:00 +0200

What is an easier way to "Go Green" than by moving your business collaboration to the cloud? With many companies creating products that make life easier by working online, headlined by none other than Google, it does not only make sense for business, but allows you to be environmentally responsible at the same time.

I occasionally write and tweet about this specific product when discussing online business tools or working in the cloud, but today I am going to focus solely on Google Docs.

Now, I am not going to get all "tree hugger" on you, but I am going to point out several reasons why you should utilize Google Docs and how it can help you work more efficiently with five key points:

First, you can share Google Docs online. No need to print anything. You can simply add users with view or edit capabilities, plus you have a unique URL for the document, which you could send in an email or chat. In addition, you can share images and embed video into your presentations to really help your business efforts. Also, did you know you can publish Google Docs as a web page?

Second, you can edit documents with whomever you are working with. No need to meet in person, print anything, or red line and reply. Just markup the document or presentation online with everybody you are collaborating with in real time. Sit at your desk at work or even your couch at home and work together. Are you in California and working with people in the Philippines, Canada, or Florida? Say goodbye to the planes, trains, and automobiles. Location doesn't matter.

Third, with many companies integrating the cloud products you already use with the Google Apps Suite, you can easily post or attach the documents without ever having to download anything. Why fill-up your hard drive when you can have Google take care of it all? They must be doing something right, since they just reported a 32% profit rise this past quarter in a sluggish economy.

Fourth, you can search for specific keywords across all documents. How many times have you been looking for a file, whether it is on your computer or somewhere in your office, and you can't find it? Well, you use Google to search for everything else. Why not let them find all your work and emails?

Fifth, Google keeps improving their Docs Suite everyday. It doesn't have the depth of Microsoft Office Suite, but you don't always need to get that complex. Especially when dealing Word and PowerPoint documents, go to the cloud.

So along with creating an easier way to work, we eliminated printing, along with its cost of paper and ink, the headache inducing search for lost documents, and unnecessary in-person office visits across town, plus more. Sounds good to me. How about you?

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Do you work with Google Docs? What other cloud products do you use? We like to hear how people get creative, whether they move towards a more green work environment or location independence, so please tell us about it.

Time Tracking, Expense Tracking & Invoicing

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:16:00 +0200

This video is an overview of the Time Tracking, Expense Tracking, and Invoicing software that Mavenlink now features. By combining these features with the existing project collaboration capabilities, you can remove administrative redundancies and ensure accountability for each project or client.

With time tracking and expense tracking, organizations, small business, and freelancers can perform all essential business transactions related to a project or business relationship. You can now better manage the productivity of collaborative work teams and track the timeline and expenses associated with each line item.

The online invoicing feature links all project conversations and activities (tasks, deliverables & milestones) to the billing process. Invoices can now be created effortlessly. Billing can often get complicated, but with our integrated and professionally laid out dynamic invoice, everything can be accounted for.

Time tracking and expense tracking can be done in an individual workspace or in the Finance Center, where you can compile your invoices.

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Have you tried out the Time Tracking, Expense Tracking, and Invoicing features? If so, what did you think of it? If not, how do you currently handle those tasks?

Today’s Freelance Economy Requires Keeping Clients Happy

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 07:48:00 +0200

The world of work is changing, a world in which economic forces and rapidly evolving business realities have pushed many in the workforce into the role of independent professionals – consultants, freelancers, free agents, temps and part-timers. Today it is estimated that some 42 million Americans make their living working independently, meaning they are not tied to any one employer, but rather very much tied to many employers -- their clients.

Consequently, this new employment paradigm puts enormous competitive pressure on independents to keep existing clients happy; especially when, according to a recent Freelancers Union survey, over 80 percent had little or no work. Thus the challenge for today’s independent professionals is not only to increase their client base, but just as importantly, to hold on to their present client base. And in today’s complex networked economy, this means having the ability to more effectively manage client relationships online.

Methods of conducting business on the Web typically include using e-mails, remote collaborations sites, networking and social media, and electronic billing and funds transfers. These methods are inefficient, cumbersome, often not secure and reside in so many different locations that it’s the main reason why most freelancers work at only 34 percent efficiency, according to Consultant Journal. However, thanks to recent technological breakthroughs in cloud computing, seasoned independent consultants and freelance beginners alike have discovered that cloud based software offers the potential to keep things simple for their clients, yet completely comprehensive in terms of conducting and attracting business.

Challenge for Today’s Independent Professional in a Networked Economy

Many independents are experienced and prefer “freedom” to “traditional employment” and embrace project management assignments while new entries represent displaced, laid-off workers that only freelance while waiting to find a new job. The availability of this growing contingent workforce allows clients to capitalize on the situation, providing options and negotiating points that put pressure on the independents to compete -- or even survive.

A recent Freelancers Union report showed that 81 percent of the 3,000 freelancers surveyed nationally had little or no work, 40 percent had trouble collecting wages from clients and 39 percent had to cut back on health coverage. And just as troubling, the same group reported spending 17,000 hours pursuing unpaid wages. According to Consultant Journal, most of the time is spent doing administration, proposing, selling, planning or travelling.

Technology does offer some time-saving options and in today’s networked economy, most business is conducted over the Internet. However, current solutions for conducting business online – e-mail, collaboration and social networking websites, new software, etc. -- are simply inadequate and cause inefficiency most consultants can ill afford. The challenge of managing clients more effectively in today’s networked freelance economy is not an option, it’s a necessity.

The Workplace Redefined / The Four C’s

The importance of having good relationships in business is paramount as the world continues to move faster and rely on high-speed online interaction. It is critical that the environment selected for that interaction actually improves the relationship rather than strains it. The place where one chooses to work online today must include simple transactional and collaboration tools as well as a heavy dose of imbedded business acumen and sensibility.

The four key elements for independents managing business relationships in today’s freelance economy are:

Communications – 24/7, high touch, low cost communications to keep everyone on the same page.
Convenience – make transactions (proposals, invoicing, contracting, payments) painless and quick so nothing slips through the cracks.
Continuity – bring all key parties into one secure workspace (visibility) while maintaining appropriate permissions for subcontractors and sub-clients (permissions).
Connections – reach out for new relationships with private, secure, trusted referral networks.

The Cloud Brings Opportunity

Independents need to find an interactive workplace created for today’s networked economy. Keeping the client relationship at the forefront of the decision making process, independents should carefully review cloud based technologies, focusing on solutions that provide a comprehensive set of online tools for success.

Collaborative Work Environment – make sure you can communicate and share files with colleagues and clients in real time.
Business Transactions – all processes and templates including contracts, invoices, payments and proposals under one umbrella helps keep things organized for all parties.
Useful Dashboard – all communications, prioritized to-do’s and a clear sense of where things stand should be visible in one dashboard/view.
Project Management – the ability to manage all expectations carefully, including deliverables, due dates, tasks.
Productivity Tools – integration with key tools: e-mail, calendar, contacts.
Security/Privacy – all good relationships require trust to thrive.
Personalization – allows users to “brand” themselves and showcase their talent.

This article was originally published on September 30, 2010 in Corp! Magazine.

September Slogan Contest Finalists

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 06:51:00 +0200

We are happy to announce our September Slogan Finalists for the free iPad on Facebook. Our Management & Marketing Team had the tough task of choosing five finalists from hundreds of entries from over 20 countries based on the following three factors:

applicability to the Mavenlink product
“sticky” factor or memorability
relevancy to audience

We whittled our list down one-by-one and are now happy to present the five slogans:

"Moving business forward, together." - John R., Mexico
"A 'self-styled' simplified business solution." - Lori H., USA
"Your work. Simplified." - Seto B., Indonesia
"Do more while working less with Mavenlink." - Wella A., Philippines
"Think outside the box. Work inside ours." - Jennifer S., USA

After choosing our finalists, we checked on the name and country associated with each and were pleasantly surprised to see such a diverse group. That is something that we strive for and have succeeded with at Mavenlink...creating a place for people across the world to work together online. Our goal is to make Mavenlink the best web based collaboration software available and we know we will succeed.

Even though we are not sure of the exact medium that we are going to utilize our new slogan, we are extremely happy with all of the suggestions and can't wait to see who you all choose as the Winner.

Don't forget to vote on Faecbook!

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Which slogan is your favorite? And why?

3 Simple Tools for Juggling Business Online

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:32:00 +0200

We are all inundated with “new” and “improved” options for doing business online everyday. As business changes seemingly every second in this exciting online world, small businesses and freelancers must handle a variety of projects with multiple clients. It gets difficult to choose which products to invest time, but it’s a necessity to remain ahead of the curve and collaborate efficiently.

To keep things simple, I highly recommend three products to handle the following: web-based office tools, email campaigns, and identity management.

Google Apps - It comes as no surprise and they definitely aren’t in any dire need for any more publicity, but Google Apps is the unquestioned leader for office tools in the cloud. They obviously handle email, which continues to improve with no hassle on my end and has great search capabilities. Their documents can be shared and edited with multiple people, including forms that can be sent online and automatically uploaded into their spreadsheets. They take care of calendar and contacts as well. Also, they integrate with many business products in the Google Apps Marketplace, which really brings them to an untouchable level.

MailChimp - I haven’t found a mass email solution that works as easy and efficiently as MailChimp. Whether you are sending one email to a prospective client and want to make it look extremely professional with HTML format or you are sending automatic monthly emails to 10,000+ users and want to track which links specifically were clicked from people who opened your email, they cover it all.

OneLogin - As consultants, clients, and employees come and go and the amount of different websites we utilize expands, nothing can cause more of a problem than a lost password or needing to revoke a user’s privileges. OneLogin has come to save the day in that regards. You can register all of the sites you access to your dashboard for one-click login for both business and personal uses. You can allow specific users to have one-click login access to certain sites without having to give them any password, aside from their OneLogin password, which you can easily remove or alter with you administrator capabilities. Also, their help is ridiculously fast, which just seals the deal. Every time I recommend a product to be added, it usually takes less than an hour for them to get back to me saying that have everything configured.

I hope that helps some of you. When I was looking around, my goal was simple: remain lightweight and agile in the ever-changing business cloud world. Hopefully, you do the same.

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What are some products that you use and why? We love hearing new ideas.

IT Business Edge and Go4 Web Apps Coverage

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:12:00 +0300

Mavenlink was featured today on IT Business Edge's list of Top 10 Google Apps for Project Management. They note how we are "an online collaboration solution that allows you to manage projects from start to finish." We strive to be the best one-stop shop for cloud computing when managing projects online. That's what motivated us to integrate with Google Apps and their cloud Document, Calendar, and Contact features.

We were also mentioned on Go4 Web Apps under Business Tools as the Single Destination to Conduct Business with Clients. They discuss how Mavenlink is "the first of its kind, on-line interactive workplace developed to run the networked economy more efficiently. Its cloud-based, advanced and agile technology allows users to privately manage every aspect of their business. Using Mavenlink, you can manage all your projects from a one place, create timelines and documentation, accept contracts and manage your resources."

We are glad to hear people are as excited our Google Apps integration and new features, such as Time Tracking, as we are. We plan on rolling out at least three key features by the end of this month that will really take Mavenlink to the next level. We hope you are ready.

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What are some features that you would like to see us add to make your online project collaboration and management that much easier?

Is Modern Management Extinct?

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:24:00 +0300

As Alan Murray of The Wall Street Journal discusses, we could be witnessing the end of "Modern" management as we know it. With so much work today being done online in the cloud, change in everything we do is rapidly accelerating.

Murray mentions some of the great corporate managers of the 20th century, such as Henry Ford and Harold Green, but then discusses arguably the last great corporate builder, General Electric's Jack Welch, who himself strayed from the typical corporate structure. Now we have companies, such as Google with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, completely reinventing the idea of business and the corporation.

Resource allocation is one of the biggest challenges, along with being able to motivate and inspire workers. "The new model will have to instill in workers the kind of drive and creativity and innovative spirit more commonly found among entrepreneurs. It will have to push power and decision-making down the organization as much as possible, rather than leave it concentrated at the top."

For more from Alan Murray, click here...

Email Integration

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:14:00 +0300

This video demonstrates how easy it is to communicate within your project workspace. Along with responding to each post inside the respective collaborative workspace, each post is emailed to you, which you can respond directly from there. Whether it's on your computer or your mobile device, just click "reply." This feature should help make your project collaboration that much easier.

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Did you know about the email integration? What are some other features that would make your business life that much easier?

Riding a Bigger and Better Wave

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:03:00 +0300

"I got a fever and the only prescription is more Mavenlink.” - Christopher Walken

Okay, maybe that’s not exactly what Mr. Walken declared in his much loved SNL skit, but Mavenlink is the cure for the many wondering what to do after Google’s surprising announcement. Last week, Google made headlines by suspending Google Wave until at least 2011, which left people scrambling on cloud project collaboration. There’s no need to fear, Mavenlink is here!

The top features of Google Wave were: Blank Waves, Real Time Discussion, Task Tracking, and Shared Attachments. Mavenlink has all those features, but we just have slightly different names: Project Workspace, Real Time Messaging, Project Tracker, and Attach Files. As you can and will see, Mavenlink covers everything, plus much more.

Mavenlink is a real time, shared space in the cloud where people can collaborate on all types of projects or activities. Whether you are a small business owner, professor at a university, or busy scheduling charity events with your friends and family, you can efficiently manage all of those projects here. Message the whole group or specific individuals and attach files, pictures, and links and link them to specific tasks. Project Management made easy.

For all of you Google users, Mavenlink is fully integrated with Google Apps so all of your Google Contacts, Google Documents, and Google Calendar can be accessed and shared seamlessly. Also, just like in Google Wave and their Conversation Playback, you can keep track of different conversations in one place and once somebody is invited into a Workspace, they will be able to catch up on everything that has happened to date.

What are some features that Mavenlink offers that Google Wave didn’t? Glad you asked. We offer Scheduling, Budget, and Payment options with PayPal integration and security preferences. We have in-depth Time Tracking and Billing that can be linked to activities in the Project Tracker. On top of that, the messages and attachments you link to each activities in the Project Tracker can be managed by our simple Filter function.

We continue to make improvements to Mavenlink everyday. With invoices, expense tracking, and private label about to be released, we are working hard to make your life easier and accelerate your productivity in our secure project collaboration cloud tool.

Come join us now! You won’t have to worry about this wave crashing. We are here to ride the whole thing out with you.

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Did you use Google Wave? If so, have you switched to Mavenlink for your project collaboration? If you have any questions or want to know more on how to use Mavenilnk, please comment below or email us at info@mavenlink.com. We will get back to you quickly. We promise!

Interview with Scott Swartzbaugh, Founder of Technology Alliance Partners

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:35:00 +0300

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Scott Swartzbaugh – The Technology Alliance Partners (TAP) is a best-in-class team of companies specializing in a variety of services, technologies, and infrastructure solutions; everything from video conferencing to complete IT solutions available. With all solutions designed to make the least environmental impact, you can rest assured that you are receiving the most advanced-environmentally friendly technologies.

Q: Sean – You mentioned video conferencing to complete IT solutions; what are some of TAP’s other specialties?

A: Scott – Network services, conferencing & web collaboration, cloud computing, data centers, identity based security, voice & data communications, VoIP consulting, security, design specifications, and audio visual technology to name a few.

Q: Sean – What are some of the pros and cons that you have experienced in Mavenlink?

A: Scott – Definitely the more you use Mavenlink, the more comfortable everybody feels using it. Some pros are that we can run and track all of our meetings on it, centralize our team information, get out of email, easily find all documents and communication, and everything is in real-time. I has really made our team collaboration more efficient. My only con would be adapting to the product, but as I mentioned before, time can solve that.

Q: Sean – What future features are you most looking forward to from Mavenlink?

A: Scott – As TAP grows, I definitely look forward to distributing content across multiple networks, opportunity management, and the increased ability for business development. We’d love to be able to identify, share, prioritize, and jointly pursue business opportunities within our collaborative workspaces.

Q: Sean – You mentioned TAP growing. Currently, where is TAP most prevalent and what does the future hold?

A: Scott – Right now, we are in Orange County, California, but looking to expand across all of Southern California. We are looking to launch a Los Angeles/Ventura County division in the immediate future and have San Diego and the Inland Empire follow shortly after that. On top of that, all TAP partners do business throughout the entire United States and other countries throughout the world. All of our corporate offices are based in Southern California, other than NACR, which is located in Minnesota.

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What are some creative ways you use Mavenlink? Let us know and maybe you can be our next Contributing Guest. For more interviews with fellow Mavenlinkers, check out the side bar on the right.

How to Use Mavenlink's Time Tracking

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:18:00 +0300

And I could have done so many things, baby
If I could only stop my mind from wondrin' what
I left behind and from worrying 'bout this wasted time
"Wasted Time" | The Eagles

We're really excited to be launching our new, integrated Time Tracking feature. This has been a big request from many of you, because you wanted to stop your mind from wonderin' what invoices you left behind!

Feature Highlights

A time tracking homepage where you'll be able to enter time across projects/tasks/deliverables
A list view of all time entries
A calendar view of all time entries
Billable & non-billable time
The ability to enter time on a task directly in your workspace
Clients will be able to see the time entered and how the project's budget is tracking, based on estimate...anytime!

How does it work?

You can track time against any workspace that you're a provider in. Time can be billable or non-billable. Additionally, you can set your hourly rate in your account settings to default your billing rate. Optionally add tags and notes to each time entry in order to let your clients know additional information about the hours spent.

How do I get started?

That's the easy part! We've built time tracking into 2 places:

1) Our time tracking center allows you to report time across projects. You'll find the clock icon in your navigation bar, which will take you here:

Once you're ready to enter time, you can click into the workspace entry field and you'll see our autocompleter fly out with possible projects to track against.

Once you add an entry and hit "save," you'll see it populate in your recent entries below. We've organized this by your most recent entry to your least recent.

There's also a calendar view toggle that will show you all of your entries by date. Clicking on a given date will show you the details of all entries.

2) You can also log time directly in your workspaces. We thought this would be a convenient way to track, as many of you upload files, track tasks, and you may as well enter the time as you're doing the work! We know time tracking can be kind of a pain if it's not in your regular workflow, which is why separate time tracking applications aren't ideal.

You'll see a very similar view in the workspace as we just looked at in the time tracking center:

Another great feature is the addition of our budget calculator in the budget tab of your workspace. You can see that I've got a project with a $3,000 budget with Michael & Dwight and have logged one time entry at $100/hr for 2 hours. Therefore, we've used $200 of the $3,000 budget. Also notice the calculation that's made based on my hourly rate - we've got 28 hours left on this project.

If you're working with sub-contractors or service providers, we'll also take their rates into account when calculating, based on a blended rate & hours worked. This is a powerful way to make sure the project is on track and to keep your clients in the loop.

You might also find it useful to go to your account page and enter your hourly rate, so that it pre-fills on all of your billable time. You can always override the rate on an entry-by-entry basis. We're also considering putting in workspace overrides, so let us know if that would be valuable.

What's next?

This is a brand new feature, so we're especially keen on getting your feedback! Let us know what features you'd like to see. We'll be rolling out both expense tracking and invoicing for time/expenses in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned...it should be exciting!

Want a Free iPad?

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:00:00 +0300

Right now, we are offering the chance to win a free iPad. You can follow Mavenlink on many channels, but right now our Facebook page is offering a promotion open to all countries.

What do you have to do? Just “Like” our Fanpage. That is it! If you already “Like” us, you are automatically awarded an entry. For all contestants, if you share the promotion with your friends, you will be awarded additional entries for each person that you get to “Like” us. This specific promotion will end on August 31 so start spreading the news!

Why would we give away a free iPad? We want to say thanks to our great users and followers, along with spreading the word that our Facebook page is an extremely convenient way to catch the latest news from Mavenlink. Easily read and watch the latest from our Blog, Tutorials, and Guest Contributions right in your News Feed. Not only do we bring you the latest on Mavenlink, but also information on small business, project collaboration, cloud computing, and technology that we find innovative and useful.

Is this a one-time deal? No, this will not be our last promotion. We hope to make this a monthly occurrence so let us know if you have some fun ideas or prizes. We want to hear from you.

Where else can you follow us? Quench your Mavenlink hunger with our Feed, tweet with us on Twitter, or catch our videos on YouTube.

Lastly, we’d like to say thanks to Wildfire App for making our Facebook campaign so easy and collaborating with us.

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Do you follow us on Facebook or our other channels? Which is your favorite? Is there anything in particular you would like to see from us? Any ideas on future promotions?

Teamwork to the Top

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:27:00 +0300

Last month, Sean Ellis did an interview with Andrew Warner of Mixergy discussing marketing, startups, and entrepreneurship. As somebody who was recently turned onto Sean’s blog by Sean Craft’s post, Focus on the Love, I was listening intently. What was the one item I took from the interview more than anything else? Teamwork.

As Sean Ellis mentions in his recap of the interview, there is obviously a lot more than a “secret weapon” or “pure luck” that helps a company succeed. You can’t simply build a valuable product for your users and then stand pat.

Your product & development team must capitalize on the user’s needs for your product and listen to what they are saying to continuously enhance your product, such as with the Google Apps Integration. The marketing team must continue the momentum with customer acquisition based on what has and has not worked; they need to remain analytical instead of gut feelings and speculation. Everybody must collaborate together to get to the next level and continue doing so until you get to the top of the mountain.

Evolve. Grow. Succeed.

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What do you think it takes for a small business or startup to succeed? What have you found works or does not work in some of your past work?

What new features would you like to see on Mavenlink? As always, feel free to comment below or contact us directly at info@mavenlink.com.

How Mavenlink Integrates with Google Contacts

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:10:00 +0300

This video is a quick overview of how Mavenlink and Google Contacts are integrated together to help make business that much easier. Why leave Mavenlink when you don't have to? Everything can all be done within Invitations in your Project Workspace.

Don't forget that you can also customize your template message every time or save your favorite as the default message.

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Have you fully integrated your Google Apps with Mavenlink? If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us knoww.

How Mavenlink Integrates with Google Docs

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:07:00 +0300

This video is a quick overview of how Mavenlink and Google Docs are integrated together to help make business that much easier. All of the Google Docs that you manage in your cloud can be attached to any post in your Project Workspace.

It's as easy as attaching any other document, but with Google Docs you have the ability to assign either 'View' or 'Edit' permissions for everybody in your Workspace. Also, you can link the message and attached document to a specific activity in the Project Tracker.

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How has working with Documents and Spreadsheets in the cloud made your business workflow more seamless? Do you have any questions regarding the integration with Mavenlink and Google Apps? Please leave us a comment below if you have any questions or suggestions. We are always eager to hear from you all.

How to Integrate Mavenlink and Google Apps

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:03:00 +0300

This video is an overview of how to integrate Mavenlink and your Google Apps account so that it works seamlessly with Google Docs, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar. There are two option shown. One is done strictly on the Mavenlink site and the other option is done through the Google Apps Marketplace site where you can see Mavenlink as one of their Featured Apps.

Please check out our follow up videos to see how to take advantage of some of the integration features within your Project Workspace.

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Have you integrated with Google Apps yet? If so, what method did you choose? Did you have any problems?

If not, why? Do you have any questions for us?

Custom Fit Community

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:51:00 +0300

In the coming months, Mavenlink is going to put time, attention and dollars towards the development of our online community. Our goal is to provide our users and followers a resource that enhances their professional life.

As we identify the content, the approach and the layout for our on site Mavenlink Community Pages and expand our efforts to grow our presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social outlets, we wanted to make sure we captured your input.

Please take a moment to fill out this short survey (1-3 minutes) to help us ensure our future community fits your needs, after all, we're building it for you: Click here to complete the survey

3 Reasons Email Is Not Secure

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:16:00 +0300

Did you know that your email is about as secure as a kid's game of telephone? The only difference between email and telephone is that the communication between the sides (generally) doesn't break down.

How does email work?

You write an email in Gmail, Outlook, on your blackberry or iPhone. You hit send. It's there! Unfortunately, that message didn't just go directly from you to your sweetheart. It got relayed from you to your local DSL provider; from them to a central server; that server to some server in Nevada that routes emails; from that server in Nevada to another one in Idaho; that one in Idaho, over to Minnesota; and on and on until it gets to sweetie.

Here are a few reasons why email isn't secure:

1) Every relay gets a copy of your message

Just like our game of telephone, server 1 says "here's my message" to server 2. Once server 2 has the message, they say "got it," at which point server 1 is supposed to delete the message. Does it? You don't know.

That's the unlikely case of security issues - most providers are contractually obligated to ensure the normal flow. Here's another case: a hacker might be monitoring all emails coming through a relay point. That hacker might have a little filter running that looks for "social security" or "my credit card number is" or "2813 1327 0000 1234" and so on. All emails that match collect in a nice little document for him to sell to the highest bidder.

2) SSL security(?)

Oh, but you say, "I turned that SSL thingy on in my email! It says it's secure!"

From wikipedia: "While it [SMTP SSL] protects traffic from being sniffed during transmission, it is technically not encryption of e-mails because the content of messages is revealed to, and can be tampered with by, involved email relays. In other words, the encryption takes place between individual SMTP relays, not between the sender and the recipient."

What does that mean? It means that each relay makes the decision to support or not support the encryption. It's unlikely your email is getting from one end to the other completely encrypted.

Not only that, but if your accountant sends your tax documents to you to sign and they've got SSL enabled, but you don't, the best case scenario is: you're the problem. It has to de-encrypt the message before it gets to you if it didn't already do so on a relay.

3) Single point of failure

Yeah, we've all got a few email addresses, but they're often coming into one inbox whether in Outlook or on a mobile device. What happens when you lose your phone at a bar or have your laptop stolen? Your email (and other things) are now readily available for consumption.

This is a slightly different conversation than the first 2 reasons, but the reality is most hacks happen when someone figures out your password or gets access to one of your devices. Since we all use email so much, it's often the most easy/convenient thing we have at our fingertips. Do you have your devices configured to ask you for a password every time you want to view/check/send email? Probably not. That would be a pain in the neck.

Next up

In my next entry, I'll talk a little bit about alternatives. In the meantime...keep emailing! We all do!

Collaborating New School

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:30:00 +0300

Finding the right tools for online project collaboration and new ways to efficiently handle clients is something I continuously investigate. Handling multiple clients, multiple projects for each client, fellow consultants in far away lands, and my desire to save time, I need more than just email to collaborate effectively. The problem I come across is that I sometimes spend more time figuring out how to use my “time-saving” products than if I did everything the “old school” email way.

(Quick tangent: I like how email alone is almost considered a thing of the past. The times they are a-changin’.)

I will spare you the tools that I wasted time on and cut to the good stuff. The first tool I used for business collaboration with my clients was Google Docs. I started with my basic Gmail account and then started using it with my Google Apps business account. Some of my favorite aspects are how simple it is to use from the onset (seemingly a Google staple with their simplicity), the fact that multiple users can edit the same document in real-time, and that most people I work with have at least a basic Gmail account. Plus, it is completely free. It is hard to complain about that in early small business stages.

Shortly after this, a friend of mine suggested I check out Ping.fm and HootSuite. If you are not familiar with either of these, here is a quick breakdown. Ping.fm is great tool to blast out one message across all of your Social Network sites with the click of a button. You just link each account with your Ping.fm account and you are done. HootSuite can be used in a similar fashion, but you get the ability to schedule future posts and it has a built-in URL shortener that also tracks basic analytics. On top of that, you can link HootSuite with Ping.fm so you can schedule future posts across all platforms and track them. That is how you collaborate efficiently with Social Media.

Fast-forward several months and I saw my workload and client list growing faster than my email, Google Docs, and Social Media shortcuts could handle alone. I needed something to ease my ability to collaborate on larger projects proficiently and not waste a lot of time learning the product of choice.

This brings me to Mavenlink. With Mavenlink, I can better manage my projects with real-time messaging feeds, attach documents, and accept payments via PayPal, among other features all online. Plus, you can receive extremely quick and detailed feedback from their support and everything is integrated with Google Apps. This means that another pair of my online tools are now working together: HootSuite with Ping.fm and Mavenlink with Google Docs.

My collaboration tools are collaborating together. I’ve had nothing to do with it, but I like the direction things are heading. Make my life easier. Automate the mundane. Work seamlessly.

I am now new school! Well, at least that is what I am telling myself…

Interview with Priyardarshi Ghosh, CEO of Kloudz Computing

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:52:00 +0300

Q: Sean Crafts (Mavenlink Co-Founder) - Can you tell us a little about your business?

A: Priyadarshi Ghosh (Priyo) - Kloudz Computing is a full service Web Design, Web Development, Mobile Applications Development and Marketing Services company headquartered in Kolkata, India. Our goal is to provide Innovative Solutions to all of our clients’ web needs, making sure that our clients love their finished product.

Q: Sean - How did you first come to Mavenlink?

A: Priyo - We find clients through a number of sources, including a number of the freelance marketplace sites. However, we were looking for a better, more engaging way to work with clients once the project kicked off. After evaluating a couple of technologies in the space, we choose Mavenlink because we felt it would be very usable for our clients and it was priced very reasonably for our needs.

Q: Sean - You mentioned finding clients on the freelance marketplace sites. How does it work bringing clients from those sites over to Mavenlink?

A: Priyo - It is pretty simple. I let them know that Mavenlink is our platform for completing projects, and so far, after over 41 projects in just a few months, I still haven’t had an issue. Of course, if I find any projects in a freelance marketplace, I go back to that site to complete the transaction, but the day to day work takes place inside of Mavenlink. After I receive payment, I update the payment details on Mavenlink to close out a projects financial details, since I also use Mavenlink for budgeting on every project (client view).

Q: Sean - At first glance it might seem like a lot of extra work for you. Could you share a little more about why you go through that extra effort?

A: Priyo - Sure. On the other sites, all of the client interactions go through me. On Mavenlink, I am able to bring my team into the workspace (without additional cost) and let them work directly with clients. I am very proud of my team. With the tools Mavenlink provides to communicate on all aspects of the project, and the simple task & milestone management features to set expectations, my team is able to build very strong relationships with our clients. It is easy for me to participate as an escalation point if needed, but generally we are all on the same page since it is easy to tell exactly what a client wants.

Q: Sean - How has this changed your business?

A: Priyo - There are a couple of things that come to mind. First, I feel like our team is much more organized around our clients needs. Every night I go in and review project activity, making sure we are tracking well within each project. I can easily add tasks for my team and follow up the next day to see that the work was done to the satisfaction of the client.

Second, more and more of my work is coming from referrals. Now, rather than having to develop all of the new business myself, my whole team is creating new opportunities because of the relationships they are building. As a quick example, one of our clients recently paid us extra for no other reason than they were really happy with the work and with my developer. More importantly, as you might expect, we got more work from them less than a week later.

10 steps to a new organization

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:00:00 +0300

GOT CHANGE FOR A TEN

10 steps to a new organization

By: Gary Szenderski Senior Partner SZEN Marketing

(See Video for specific tips for small businesses)

Planning for Change…Lay the track, before you start the engine. In today’s turbulent times many organizations are considering change. The time comes when you realize that what got you to this point doesn’t work as well as it should. Competitive pressure, market dynamics, and lost opportunities drive companies and their brands into transition.

To help manage transition and the development of a new plan and strategy, we’ve listed a 10-step process to becoming the new you.

1. Catalyst Identification

Describe the motivation for a new marketing strategy. Who is initiating the change? Is there a specific problem to be resolved?

2. Situation Analysis

Assessment/Evaluation of where you are today. Conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis noting implications to financials as well as image. Confirm that there is agreement from leadership on the current state of the organization. Conduct research if necessary to validate assumptions or gain additional insights.

Use mapping (2 axis e.g. price and quality) to plot the agreed position in the marketplace versus the competition. Define the problem to be resolved.

3. Vision

Analyze the current vision statement relative to the completed situation analysis. Has the vision been realized? Is it still relevant? Does it indicate a logical course?

4. Marketing Objective

What specifically do we want to achieve? Revenues, awareness, image, etc. The marketing objective should be realistic and measurable. It should determine how you would evaluate success over time.

5. Positioning

Plot the desired new direction and note competitors on your path. How do we want to be perceived? Is it believable? Is it realistic? Define what sets you apart. What are you selling?.

6. Audience

Whom do we have to convince? Internally and externally, what is the challenge, the preconceived notions, bias etc. that must be overcome? What benefit do we offer? Are we addressing the right audience? Are we speaking their language?

7. Resources

What can we bring to bear to affect change…Money, time, opportunity? List the brand assets.

8. Internalizing

Create synergy within and share the steps and the process with all staff and seek support for implementation. Create the culture you need to succeed.

9. Implementation

The greatest plans and strategies can fall flat if not executed properly. Develop a creative strategy and tactical plan. Apply branding principles. Stick to the budget and the goals. Keep track of changes in the market that may require reevaluation.

10. Sell it

Remind everyone involved in the process about the goals and the results. Cheer each success. Merchandise it through internal and external media. Consider developing a leadership or executive coaching program.

It’s just a list… Obviously, each one of the ten steps noted above will take some thinking and some time. Some things you can do for yourself and others may require some professional help. Some may stop you in your tracks while others may turn on the light bulb. Just remember it’s a process, not a magic wand. Good luck.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle

SZEN Marketing is a specialized brand development and strategic planning company that provides essential strategic and creative solutions for leaders, top-tier owners/management, and agency partners to successfully navigate their companies and brands through critical transitions.

Our exclusive accelerated planning regimen quickly determines the right course of action for emerging brands, companies facing changing market conditions, and those looking to expand market share domestically or internationally. For more information contact Gary Szenderski garys@szen.us © 2009 Szen Marketing All Rights Reserved

Working in the Cloud

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:46:00 +0300

Just over four months ago, Google opened their virtual doors to the Google Apps Marketplace. The Google push for cloud computing and the more than receptive public took a huge step forward that day. With over 2,000,000 businesses using Google Apps, it only made sense to allow third party developers to assist in making everybody’s life that much easier and efficient.

We all now have more options and flexibility. This seamless cloud workspace with integrated apps now allows us to dismiss passwords and annoying product updates. These apps are accessible from your Google navigational bar and work with your Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts. Not surprising, the search capabilities for specific products in the Marketplace are exceptional as you specify the features for which you are looking. From Admin Tools and Project Management products to Google Analytics and Small Business Implementation professional services, it is all in the Marketplace.

According to Lisa Barone on Small Business Trends, about 50 vendors, including large companies such as Intuit, made their apps available on the March 9, 2010 launch of the Google Apps Marketplace. Needless to say, that number has grown significantly since inception. There are nearly 200 different apps vendors in the Productivity products alone. Many small companies have jumped on the Google bandwagon recently, along with well known companies like FreshBooks and MailChimp.

Where are Google and the Google Apps Marketplace heading next? I have no clue, but I look forward in getting lost in the cloud.

Transactions (Schedule, Budget & Payment)

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:24:00 +0300

The above video is a short explanation outlining:

Scheduling project due dates
Creating project budgets
Change orders for budget updates
Requesting payments & logging offline payments
Using Paypal to pay online within Mavenlink

All of your project scheduling and finances can be managed right here in your Project Workspace. It is our goal to have everything accessible to you in one seamless cloud environment for efficient project collaboration, which is why we integrated with Google Apps.

###

How have the Transaction functions made your business life easier? Are there other features you would like to see integrated? Have you asked us about our Preferred PayPal rate we offer our users? Don't be afraid to ask questions or offer suggestions in the comments below.

Project Workspace Invitations

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:18:00 +0300

The above video is a short explanation of how you invite colleagues, clients, and/or consultants to work with you inside a Mavenlink Project Workspace. To make your online project collaboration life easier, we offer Google Apps integration so that all of your Google Contacts are readily available.

No more looking up email addresses. Just type in the name of the person you wish to invite. Also, we have a default invitation email, but you can craft your own and check the "Use this as a default message" box to further customize Mavenlink to your benefit.

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Are there any other Invitation features that you would like to see? Let us know in the comment section.

Real Time Messaging

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:13:00 +0300

The video is a quick overview highlighting the key features of Mavenlink's messaging capabilities in the Project Workspace, including:

Real Time Messaging
Personalized Messaging
Attaching Files
Attaching Google Docs
Linking Files to Project Tracker with Tasks or Deliverables

The video does not cover File Management with our Filter function, which is a great feature that should be utilized by everybody to manage projects online.

###

How do you use Real Time Messaging? Are there any other features you would like to see? Let us know in the comment section.

Project Tracker

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:29:00 +0300

This video provides an overview of the capabilities of Project Tracker within the Project Workspace. The Project Tracker allows you to:

Create tasks, deliverables & milestones
Assign responsibility to project activities
Identify dates, linked to your Google Calendar, for project milestones
View and Manage files and attachments associated with specific project activities

Have a specific report you need done? A specific consultant must complete their Small Business blog post? The final budget proposal has to be finished by a certain date? The Project Tracker helps keep track of all that and with our Google Apps integration, all assigned dates are automatically linked with your Google Calendar. On top of all that, we have included the agile drag-and-drop interface to make your project management that much easier.

###

How have you used the Project Tracker to make yourself more efficient and effective? What could we add to make life even simpler? If you have any questions or comments on these features, please let us know below.

Check Out Our New How To Videos

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:19:00 +0300

Mavenlink How To Help Videos

Today we released a few how to video's to provide some tutorials. If you are new to Mavenlink or even a seasoned user, there is something to be learned from these short simple tutorials. Check them out below:

Mavenlink Collaboration Overview - What is Mavenlink? How can I use Mavenlink as a Project Collaboration Software Suite?

Real Time Messaging - Brief Overview highlighting the key features of Mavenlink's messaging capabilities, including:

Real Time Messaging
Personalized Messaging
Attaching Files
Attaching Google Docs
Linking Files to Project Tasks or Deliverables

Project Workspace Invitations - Short video describing how you invite colleagues, clients and/or consultants to work with you inside a Mavenlink Project Workspace.

Financial Transactions - Video overview describing:

Scheduling project due dates
Creating project budgets
Change orders for budget updates
Requesting payments & logging offline payments
Using Paypal to pay online within Mavenlink

Project Tracker - This video provides an overview of the capabilities of Project Tracker within the Mavenlink Project Workspace. Project Tracker allows you to: - This video provides an overview of the capabilities of Project Tracker within the Mavenlink Project Workspace. Project Tracker allows you to:

Create tasks, deliverables & milestones
Assign responsibility to project activities
Identify dates, linked to your Google Calendar, for project milestones
View and Manage files and attachments associated with specific project activities

Project Workspace Overview

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:52:00 +0300

The video above is to help give you an overview of the Project Workspace within Mavenlink. It covers the following four main components:

This should really help you get started on your first project. If you want to run a test project, feel free to invite us (info@mavenlink.com) to share the experience with you!

###

Have you started your first project? Do you have questions that we did not answer in the video above? Let us know in the comments below. If you have more in-depth questions, you might want to first check out our other tutorials on how to use Mavenlink.

Focus on the Love

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:06:00 +0300

As a technology company focused on innovation, it is addicting to hinge on every word, utterance, tweet, post, email or otherwise that even hints at feature requests. "When are you going to have X capability"? "If I want Y, how would I do that on your site?"

The numbers also line up pretty aggressively behind spending time and energy addressing anything that might lead to a "Dissatisfied Customer". No one wants a Dissatisfied Customer telling 8+ of their neighbors and thousands of their closest web acquaintances how they don't like your product or service.

So what happens to those messages, pure and uncomplicated in their origination, that say very little other than their appreciation for what you've already built? They certainly are a welcome reward for all of the hard work that goes into the building, but I wonder if they far too often fail to get the attention they deserve.

I had a chance to watch Sean Ellis' interview on Mixergy, and the piece that hit me like a ton of bricks (amongst a number of nuggets) was that it is hard to spend enough time with the customers that love us. Besides missing out on some uplifting soul food, who wouldn't like to know everything possible about:

Key audience segments
Product strengths that resonate with real customers
Teaching future prospects how to get the most out of your product

It's pretty tough to get these answers talking to users who are looking for something you don't yet have or are having issues with what you do have. Instead, it's time to go re-read some love notes, I bet the answers have been there all along.

Google Calendar Integration Goes Live!

Fri, 28 May 2010 08:53:00 +0300

I'm happy to announce that we've released our integration to Google Calendar for all Google Apps and GMail users! We're really excited to get this feature out on the heels of our Google Apps Marketplace release.

What does this mean for me?

We think we've got a really clean, simple, and effective calendar integration. We sync all of your project due dates and milestones to your Google Calendar. We know that many of you live and die by your calendar and treat it as the system of record for what you need to do on a given day.

Also, if you're someone who manages people, you know how important it is to stay in the loop. Now, you can just participate as a member of a workspace and your calendar will stay in sync with what the team is working on. No more status meetings or guessing.

How do I get started?

It's really simple - just head over to your account page and you'll see the "Google Account Integration" section that looks like this:

If you're logged into your Google account, you'll be taken straight over there to authorize Mavenlink access to your Google Calendar. Don't worry, we won't do anything to your existing calendars, we create a Mavenlink calendar that you can turn on or off.

Once you're authorized, we'll do all the work, syncing your upcoming milestones and project due dates. Once it's done (within 1 minute!), you'll see something like this in your Google Calendar:

That's it, you're done! Now, any future milestones and projects will sync right in whether you added them or one of your colleagues/clients did. You'll always be in the loop and so will your team.

Let us know if you have any other ideas for the calendar, otherwise, we'll keep you posted on further development efforts!

Google Apps Marketplace Getting Started Guide

Wed, 26 May 2010 03:25:00 +0300

We thought it would be helpful for our community to see what's involved in pulling Mavenlink into their existing Google Apps account through our listing in the Google Apps Marketplace. Use this guide to get Mavenlink installed in your Google domain.

Step 1

Log in to your Google Apps account to help with the next few steps. One thing to keep in mind, if you're part of a large domain, you may need to contact your domain administrator to do this for you. Otherwise, this should be pretty simple!

Step 2

Click the "Add it now" button on the listing

...which will change the box into this:

Put your Google Apps domain into the entry field. For example, acmecorp.com

Step 3

You'll be brought into your Google Apps account where you can agree to the Terms of Service

and enable the app

Step 4

Now that you've added Mavenlink to your Google Apps account, you'll want to click "sign in now" on the next screen. To get your Mavenlink account linked up with your Google account.

Final Step!

Once you tell Google that you'd like to sign in now, they'll bring you into Mavenlink. We've put together a screen that allows you to link your Google Apps account to an existing Mavenlink account, or create a new one.

Welcome to Mavenlink + Google Apps! You now have Project Collaboration and Google working as one. As always, let us know what you think.

[UPDATE: We've also been made aware that it can take a few minutes for "Mavenlink" to show up in your Google Apps header. Once you go through the above steps, you'll see a "More" menu with Mavenlink underneath. Give it a couple minutes and if it doesn't seem to be working, feel free to contact us]

Mavenlink Featured in OCTech Innovation Blog

Wed, 26 May 2010 00:25:00 +0300

Mavenlink got a shout out today in the OCTech Innovation Blog. The author, a local patent attorney and Ph.d., crashed a Mavenlink investor presentation at the 2010 VC in the OC where it impressed several Tech heavyweights, including a business reporter at the OC Register.

"At the “VC in the OC” conference, I also attended an investment presentation by Mavenlink, LLC, headquartered in Irvine, CA, which markets a cloud-based software application (in the category of “software as a service” or SaaS) designed to provide an interactive workplace for users to collaborate with their clients and to manage various aspects of their projects, including budgets, schedules, communications, and payments. According to Mavenlink’s CEO, Ray Grainger, Mavenlink was launched in December 2009, and potential users of Mavenlink’s technology include companies, independent contractors, and solo practitioners."

Mavenlink Joins Google Apps Marketplace

Mon, 24 May 2010 22:26:00 +0300

We're building new functionality into Mavenlink every day. Functionality that you, our users, request from us. One philosophical point that we hear time & time again is: please make Mavenlink part of my daily workflow!

For us, that started with sending you emails each time something happened in your world. Then, we gave you the ability to respond to posts directly from your email and have that response get routed into your workspace, keeping the communication loop open from web or mobile device. Today, we're really excited to be launching the next phase: integration into your Google Apps

What does this mean for me?

If you're a Google Apps user, you can add us to your universal navigation (up top in Google where it says "Mail Calendar Docs..."). Head over to our listing in the Google Apps Marketplace. You'll see an "Add it now" button - click that and Google will take you through the linking process. You'll be able to link it to your existing Mavenlink account, or create a new account.

Once you've got Google and Mavenlink linked, you'll have "Mavenlink" in your Google header (alongside "Mail", etc...). When you click that link, you'll be signed directly into Mavenlink, without entering any username/password!

What's next?

We're going to be releasing further app integration, beyond the single-sign on capability we're rolling out today. We've got some great stuff planned for calendar integration, as well as contacts and docs.

Stay tuned for that and a few videos / tutorials!

Sign In or Sign Up with Your Favorite Account

Fri, 21 May 2010 08:16:00 +0300

Are you as tired of more usernames and passwords as we are? We've always tried to keep the Mavenlink sign up & sign in process simple. As of this week, we've made it even better by now allowing you to use other popular services that you have accounts with to log in.

How does it work?

You may or may not know about a technology called OpenID. It lets you use your login from sites like Google, Yahoo, AOL, and others to sign in to sites like Mavenlink. Fortunately, the best part of how we've done things is...you don't need to know about it. It just works.

To use your favorite account with Mavenlink, go and login like you normally would, but select one of the icons (Google, Facebook, etc). If you're not already signed into that service, it'll ask you to log in. Once you do that, it'll ask you to confirm that you want to link your Mavenlink account. After confirming, you'll be brought back to Mavenlink one last time to log in. That last step links your Mavenlink account permanently to your preferred service.

Now, whenever you want to sign in to Mavenlink, just click the icon and you'll be brought right to your dashboard!

We currently support a bunch of the most popular services, but let us know if there are any others you're looking for! We'll be adding a few more in the near future.

Mavenlink Profiled in OC Register as "VC in the OC" Presenter

Fri, 21 May 2010 00:52:00 +0300

With all the venture capital firms and small companies pitching at this year's "VC in OC," Mavenlink was chosen as one of fourteen companies to get mentioned in the Orange County Register's curtain raiser for the event:

"Fourteen startups will make their best pitch to venture capitalists, angels and private investors and everyone else attending VC in the OC and OCTANe Innovation Showcase, the county's top innovation event on May 18 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. VC in the OC planners each year come up with innovative ways to explain and explore the relationship between creative entrepreneurs and the folks with money to develop ideas into moneymakers."

Along with a run-down of the VC event, the presenting firms are profiled, including Mavenlink which is described as a "web-based technology and services to help clients and service providers build better relationships and get more work done."

Mavenlink Named One of OC Register’s 5 “Gee Whiz” Tech Startups to Watch

Fri, 21 May 2010 00:24:00 +0300

At this year’s VC in the OC, an annual gathering a leading tech firms and venture capital outfits, the Mavenlink team evangelized for a better way to business, via Mavenlink of course. Little did our humble presenters know that Jan Norman, small-business columnist for the Orange County Register, was listening. After the presentation, Ms. Norman followed up with questions and Mavenlink was featured as one the five small companies “worth watching.”

Check it out!

Framing the Conversation with Clients

Fri, 14 May 2010 03:30:00 +0300

Much time and thought has been spent analyzing how a style of discussion influences its content and character. Socrates used questions to tease out what his students already knew to be true. Without parliamentary procedure, many political bodies would descend into chaos.

How do you manage your communications with clients? How do you propel negotiations and encourage useful feedback? How do you make it easier to get paid? Charm will get you places but the right technology can help too.

One way to create a better style of business conversation is to pull your discussion on to a site like Mavenlink where all of the important logistics of white-collar contracting are taken care of. You can invite clients into a space and clearly define the parameters and pay for a project. Then you can post your work as you progress and invite realtime comments as you go. It's like what eBay did for the folks trying to hawk goods over the phone.

As the saying goes, "It's not just what you say, it's how say it."

7 Tips for Dealmaking

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:10:00 +0300

Getting clients is one thing, negotiating terms you want is another. For most in the freelance economy, dealmaking is a necessary evil. But learning to negotiate effectively can increase your pay and help grow your business.

According to Inc.com, a few key principles include Listen before your speak, Embrace your fear, Avoid storytelling and Study up. Basically, treat your client like a customer.

"Negotiating: It's two pit bulls locked in a room and one's going to be forced to roll over. Ick. That mentality is not only outdated, but will get you nowhere. That's because, frankly, baring teeth and barking the loudest doesn't have the power it might seem to when bargaining. When dealmaking gets tense, no one ever wants to back down. In Roger Fisher and William Ury's negotiating text, Getting to Yes, the experts suggest that instead of viewing your counterpart as the adversary, you focus instead on the merits of the case and search for ways to acheive reciprocity. The idea is to "attack" the underlying issue, rather than the other negotiator."

Retune Your Business Plan

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:02:00 +0300

One way to jumpstart your business is to rethink how you make money. That is, look at where the money is coming in and where money is going out and try to maximize the first and minimize the latter. Whether you've been in business for yourself for six months or six years, an inventory like this can be incredibly useful. Forbes' Matt Zwilling makes it simple with "10 Ingredients of a Great Business Plan."

"If you think you only need a business plan to go fishing for capital, you are sorely mistaken. A business plan--thoughtfully assembled and diligently updated--is the very blueprint for any company. It sets direction, facilitates communication and establishes performance metrics. Better yet, well-articulated business plans force business owners to constantly weigh the strengths and weaknesses of their operations."

Check out his ten tips and see if your model needs tweaking or is ready to grow.

Check out Social Again Mavenlink Review!

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:27:00 +0300

Social Again, a tech review review site, gave Mavenlink a glowing review in March. Check it out!

"Now you can concentrate on your core business, and Mavelink will help you with all the other things. You will have one place to manage all your documentation, contracts, timelines, deliveries, financials including managing your resources...Mavenlink forte is to socially empower the interactions between businesses and their consultants. They have started by creating an intuitive technology platform that embraces the consulting lifecycle, managing all business relationships and transactions so that your projects are a success. We believe that their innovative technologies and services are going to help business consultants, service providers and small business setups who outsource projects to work collaboratively with their teams."

Tech America Names Mavenlink as a Finalist for Innovation Award

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:34:00 +0300

Mavenlink was recognized today as a finalist for TechAmerica's Innovation Award for Cloud Computing.

Mavenlink is excited to be a part of this year's TechAmerica High Tech Innovation Awards as a Finalist in the Cloud Computing category. There are obviously a number of deserving nominees, and we are honored to be among the finalists for the award.

We share this recognition with our loyal and active customers who have played a tremendous role in shaping our product direction. Our customer driven development process relies heavily on the continued input and insight from our users. With their help, we will continue to drive innovative products that support the new workforce and the businesses that rely on their talents.

IRS Ups Audits on Self-Employed Americans

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:25:00 +0300

Being your own boss means contributing to the some $150 billion that independents will pay this year in income tax.

Working hard to grow your consulting business (whatever it is - design, law, accounting etc) used to mean you probably weren't going to be audited. In fact, it used to be that small fries generally escaped the perusal of the Internal Revenue Service. But no more. According to a recent report from ABC News, the IRS has increased its inquiries into people making less than $200,000 a year and out on their own. Ninety percent of the 1.4 million IRS audits conducted in 2009 involved persons pulling in less than that amount. Meanwhile, there were only 28,349 examinations of individuals who earned more than $1 million.

The fact that self-employed people catch a lot of scrutiny is no surprise: According to the IRS, the bulk of the agency's audit resources are allocated to its Small Business/Self Employment division, one of four divisions created following the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998.

Introducing Mavenlink's Community Site

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 03:23:00 +0300

Everything you need to navigate the networked economy. It is a lofty vision, but we are one giant step closer with the launch of our new "Community" site. Our goal from this day forward for the community site will be to provide our user audience, the participants in this new world of work, with a wealth of relevant information at their fingertips. When we find or hear something relevant, we'll share it immediately with our users. When an expert or a guest has something relevant to say to our users, we'll provide a platform for them to share.

For those with limited time, we've created a media like experience, where snapshots of all the content can be found on one page. For the traditionalists, it is easy to navigate directly to distinct pages for the key elements that make up the community page, including:

The Mavenlink Blog
Contributing Guests
How to use Mavenlink
Career Development
Mavenlink Facebook page
Mavenlink Twitter Feed

More Women Juggling Multiple Jobs Than Men

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:10:00 +0300

According to MSNBC, women are more likely to juggle multiple gigs than men, with some 3.7 million adult women working more than one job. The reason? Women often aren't interested in working a traditional 40-50 hour week due to childcare needs, also, they make less dollar for dollar than men and often have similar budgets. This forces them to take on multiple jobs.

“Many more women than at any time in our history are either the primary or sole breadwinner in their families,” said Eileen Appelbaum, a professor and co-director for the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University.

“The persistent pay gap between men and women and the greater incidence of part-time work for women means that women are more likely to need more than one job just to make ends meet for their families,” she said.

But this trend isn't just among women who are strapped for cash, it's also white-collar types who are looking to create a career they can't find through a traditional employment situation. At Mavenlink, we've watched as a growing group of female professionals from lawyers to graphic designers have pulled their business online. In order to be competitive, a resource like Mavenlink is essential for managing all the relationships that a self-=employed consultant has to juggle at once.

Getting the Most out of Mavenlink

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:12:00 +0300

Fevi Yu is a Senior Project Manager for EasyWebsites.ky, focused on developing Search Engine Friendly websites for clients in the Caribbean and the United States.

1) How does Mavenlink save you time and/or money?

We are currently developing 18 projects - yes, all at the same time. Our developers are located in Canada, France and the Philippines and we are in the Cayman Islands. Our clients are spread across the Caribbean and mainland USA. Mavenlink provides a platform that we can all easily access without the hassle of signing way too many forms or pay an exorbitant amount or overthink on how to do anything. Its a very simple interface that allows us to focus on our projects. It has enabled us to be at least 30% more efficient because we don't have to keep going back and forth on emails or project specs because you can find everything in one workspace. In every project, just like life, communication is key and Mavenlink is a good tool for communication for our kind of work.

2) What has changed about your business now that you use Mavenlink?

We are more efficient and project oriented because of Mavenlink. We are able to see projects clearly and execute them according to project specs even when the specs often change. I also love the fact that I can invite clients into the workspace and they don't necessarily have to be tech-savvy to update, comment and even praise us for our work.

3) What does your team think of Mavenlink?

Lets put it this way - we don't have to 'think' anymore because whenever we visit a workplace for our projects, everything is there, we know what to do and our clients know what to expect. From where we left off the day before and pending deliverables - Mavenlink has become an essential part of our development cycle because it allows us and our clients to effectively communicate. In addition, we have some virtual assistance in our office that use it outside our company and they love it.

In our development office in Manila, we use to say, "update it" - now we say, "Mavenlink it"

4) What separates Mavenlink from all the other options in your mind?

What options? There are none...At least, for me.

New Feature: Agile Project Management

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:17:00 +0300

Most of you on Mavenlink are not software developers - you come from many different industries with many different specialties. For those of you who aren’t familiar with building software, there’s a relatively new methodology called "agile" that many of us use to develop our products, including the team at Mavenlink. Our agile methods are what we use to prioritize our work and meet your requests, requirements, and feedback in a timely manner.

From the wikipedia entry: "Agile methods generally promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices intended to allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals."

Substitute out the words "engineering", "software", and "development" with words like "client deliverables", "tasks", and "work" and you now understand Mavenlink’s approach to helping you manage your projects. We just finished building what we call the ‘Project Tracker’ into the workspace for you to manage any of your projects in an agile way. We feel this is the best approach to fostering teamwork, collaboration, and frequent adaption in what teams are working on. It also has the side benefit of making it far easier to manage each task & deliverable, keeping things clean, simple, and, most importantly, ON-TIME.

This feature has been out there for nearly a week and is already getting some great feedback from projects large and small. I think you’re going to love our PM tools as much as we do. Keep an eye out for an upcoming screencast, but in the meantime, give it a try.

Mavenlink for the Graphic Designer

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:01:00 +0300

Nola Cooper is a professional classic designer and the Owner and Lead Designer for Classic Creation Design

1) How do you save time and/or money with Mavenlink?

Mavenlink has saved me an enormous amount of time every day by allowing me to have all communications regarding an individual project in one place. No more searching through scores of emails with the same subject line, trying to find that specific deliverable, or instruction. Each project has a defined beginning and end, with individual deliverables in between. There’s no more wondering if all parties involved are satisfied.

I’m a sole proprietor. I don’t want a system that I have to upgrade or host myself. I love having a hosted solution where you guys do that behind the scenes work, and let me use it for what I need it for.

2) Has Mavenlink changed the way you work?

When a project proposal is accepted I immediately add a workspace to my account at Mavenlink. My projects stay organized and are now easier to track. I don’t spend most of my day waiting for and reading emails, and printing them out to keep in a file. I’m saving paper and time. The system gives clients a sense of security and makes them feel like they are “in the communication loop” at all times. The number of “how are things going” emails I receive has dwindled down to almost none…just after using Mavenlink for a month.

3) What do your clients say about Mavenlink?

My clients LOVE the system. They can easily send me questions, and see the progress of their project. I have clients with multiple projects, and they love the ease of use!

One client even sent me an email:

"I think this is a phenomenal system that helps us maintain communication and assist us in organizing our work together. The ease of use brings an elementary style to a complex process."

4) What separates Mavenlink from all the other options in your mind?

I looked at several other options for my business, and even used other solutions for quite some time. Most of my clients would not use these other systems, saying it was too “clunky” and they didn’t understand it. With Mavenlink, I’ve not had a single complaint from a client, and they are all willing to use the system freely. Mavenlink provides more features that I need as a Graphic Designer.

5) What do you expect from Mavenlink over time?

I look forward to being able to start each project from the beginning – with a proposal. Having the ability offer the proposal through your site, have the client accept it, and then do a virtual contract would be yet another time saver for me!

Mavenlink for the Legal Practice

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 05:52:00 +0300

Connie Mableson and the Mableson Law Group have focused on providing legal advice and counsel with the specific goal of enhancing their clients' success for over 27 years.

1) How do you use Mavenlink in your legal practice?

As an attorney, I create, review, or modify many documents. A client must see these documents and comment on them. It is difficult to email lots of documents to a client and to keep the revised versions organized. Mavenlink allows me to post all the documents in a single space. My clients can log on and view, comment and suggest revisions in one place. It is like a file drawer or conference room accessible at all times by me and my client.

2) Are you seeing any benefits?

The first person I invite to the individual client project is my secretary. As a result, she is always in the loop of communication between me and the client. If I add another attorney or a paralegal to the project, it minimizes the amount of time I need to spend with the team bringing them up to speed. This results in a lower legal bill to the client. And, my clients appreciate that the entire team is up to date on the case status.

3) What is your clients impression of the Mavenlink work environment?

My clients like the service. It costs them nothing and they feel closer to the case and more engaged in the transaction or litigation. They have access to their case files from any location and can keep informed as the case progresses by receiving messages through their preferred email applications.

4) How would you describe Mavenlink to a colleague?

Mavenlink is affordable. It is simple. Clients can log into it easily. It serves several business purposes and does not complicate the process with features I do not need. It contains the essential functions I need to work efficiently with my clients. For a small business, it is an affordable solution to case or project management that engages all participants.

5) What do you expect from Mavenlink over time?

I hope it retains its simple user interface and functionality. If additional features are added, I hope the project manager can choose to use them or not as is currently the case.

Five Tips for Running a Small Business

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:56:00 +0300

You're talented and hardworking, but you feel like you're business isn't as gangbusters as it used to be. Maybe you just need a refresher on what it takes to be an independent consultant. Inc.com put together a list of Confucian-like tips for self-employed professionals. Our favorite? The one on being patient.

Mavenlink's DNA: The Virtuous Double Helix

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:25:00 +0200

As the Network Economy continues to evolve, people and organizations are adopting new approaches to getting work done: tapping into networked knowledge, breaking down silos, and collaborating across boundaries of time and space, to name just a few. As these strategies becomes increasingly viable and valuable, they raise some fundamental questions about the nature of employment itself.

Evolving the Talent Model

Currently, much of the conversation about how the Network Economy is transforming the culture of work focuses on anecdotes about individuals who are adapting the traditional model and, of course, the continuing debates over the merits of corporate outsourcing and the emerging online freelance marketplace.

But a larger, more substantial transformation of employment relationships is beginning to occur. Organizations are beginning to realize that knowledge is advancing and accumulating more rapidly in the external network than in the internal, exclusive R&D / IP silos. The ability to tap into talent and knowledge streams beyond organizational boundaries is becoming crucial for companies striving to remain relevant and competitive. And as a consequence, they are re-thinking their traditional HR and IP strategies to align with this new reality.

For individuals, the implications are equally profound; organizations, who provide the most common platform on which to build careers, are now re-defining their relationship with talent and knowledge, introducing uncertainty into what used to be a straightforward path to rewarding careers and long-term financial well-being. In addition, the dynamic of the network economy places demands on the pace of skill- and experience-acquisition that individuals will find difficult to fulfill in a single employment relationship.

Spiraling Virtuous Cycles

Uncertainties notwithstanding, these developments are creating real opportunities on both sides of the talent equation: companies need to stay competitive, and will continue to seek out and pay a premium for knowledge and skills that add value and help differentiate their products and services; individuals who want to contribute their energies where they will be most effective can bypass the increasingly uncertain corporate path and take direct control of their careers.

The expansion of the network economy has the potential to develop powerful virtuous cycles (repeating sequences of favorable events that reinforce themselves through a feedback loop) to advance the interests of both individuals and organizations.

The Mavenlink platform weaves together interrelated and mutually reinforcing professional, financial, and social cycles that benefit both clients and consultants. Mavenlink projects have three virtuous cycles encoded in their DNA, if you will:

The Financial Cycle

The financial cycle provides opportunities for both clients and consultants to continually increase ROI through more efficient projects and expand revenue opportunities through clearly demonstrated value.

For clients, project success is often measured initially by the degree to which the project deliverables meet expectations for time, cost, and quality; and in the larger analysis, by their associated ROI. Mavenlink’s built-in project management tools help streamline the process from proposal to delivery. Clients can propose, source, and run multiple projects efficiently from a single point of control. As successes accumulate and add value, and ROI compounds, funding for additional projects is easier to justify and secure. Project experience and artifacts also enable clients to gain additional value from re-use in planning and executing future projects.

For consultants, multiple project successes with clients result in enhanced revenue opportunities through stronger business relationships, greater confidence and credibility, and opportunities to add value through additional proposals. In addition, consultants can leverage success with one client when seeking additional business in the same vertical. Over time, consultants are able to deliver value more efficiently through increased knowledge and re-use, generating better ROI for themselves and for clients.

The Knowledge Cycle

The knowledge cycle describes the continual growth in clients’ and consultants’ abilities to tap into and contribute to knowledge streams. Every project requires knowledge and skills in a particular domain or set of domains; to the extent that every project is different, each is an opportunity for new knowledge. In addition, updating profiles and portfolios on Mavenlink ensures that connections are aware of project successes and new expertise.

With each successive project, consultants gain new knowledge and skills, or apply existing ones in a new way. New clients, partners, and collaborators all provide expanded opportunities to exchange knowledge. Even highly specialized skills, which may apply only to a single client, contribute to general knowledge that helps consultants refine their "craft" and develop better tools and processes.

Clients gain the explicit knowledge and expertise that they contract for, but also acquire experience and credibility that help them recognize and realize additional opportunities. Clients and consultants who work together on successive projects benefit from increased understanding of specific business goals and client needs, operational tools, organizational structures and personalities, and countless nuances that translate into smooth-running, successful projects.

The Reputation Cycle

The reputation cycle is the social-networking aspect of Mavenlink; the virtuous cycle associated with social networking is a major reason for its explosive growth. With every Mavenlink project, clients and consultants have the opportunity to provide mutual feedback, which becomes part of their profile information. Positive feedback from successful projects enhances your reputation and increases your visibility, which helps you expand your network and attract more collaborators.

A positive reputation helps you connect with high-quality projects and providers, and inspires confidence in both parties, streamlining the formation of new relationships. Additionally, your collaborators’ reputations reflect positively on your reputation, helping you to further expand your network, collaborate on more projects, and get more positive feedback.

A Platform for Realizing Potential

As we continue to build Mavenlink into the premier platform for successful projects and careers, we are motivated by the potential that is encoded in the Mavenlink DNA; the potential to help our community members succeed by continually advance their knowledge, financial security, and reputations.

In our next post… We’ll look at how requirements for a new ‘career platform’ based on the requirements of the network economy could span the widening gap between new employment dynamics and traditional employment structures.

We’d like to hear from you… How do you envision Mavenlink helping your long-term career strategy? Have Mavenlink projects increased your skills or knowledge, and has that translated to better compensation? What are the most important factors you consider when engaging a client or service provider? Is positive feedback a valuable indicator when it is mutual between two parties, or do the matching recommendations cancel each other out? What do you think is currently missing from career-oriented online reputations?

Answers About Freelancers and Taxes: Part 1

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:43:00 +0200

April is the cruelest month, but taxes don't have to be. Basic tips can go a long way, especially with how much rules can change year to year. The New York Times brought in an expert from law firm Sullivan and Cromwell to answer commonly asked questions from readers. Some of his answers were helpful and some underscore how complex taxes can be for someone on their own.

This Q&A is worth a look for anyone who's interested in learning more ways to save at tax time.

Rising unemployment has spurred plenty of Americans to branch out on their own and start their own practice, whether it's tutoring, web design or career counseling. Nearly 9% of unemployed workers started their own business in 2009, up from 5% in 2008, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a global employment consulting firm. Along with building a strong book of business, it's also important for independent consultants to understand how accounting rules can impact their bottom line. In a recent Dallas Morning News Article, Pamela Yip explains why it's crucial for self-employed people to separate their company cash flow from what a person needs to run their business and their life. "If business and personal expenses are too closely intertwined, it can be difficult for a business owner to justify business expenses claimed on an income tax return "because things are so closely mixed up."

Rising health insurance costs hit small employers too

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:28:00 +0200

As David Lazarus notes, rising premiums are causing plenty of employers to either lower amount they help employees with health care costs, or abandon it all together. For an independent consultant, whether an attorney or a web designer, these tough decision can be even more painful since there isn't much effort being made in Washington to help the solo professional. This is why we partnered with several of the countries largest carriers to get our members access to coverage they need and can afford.

Goldman Sachs: Shift toward cloud unstoppable

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:18:00 +0200

CNET got ahold of a February Goldman Sachs whitepaper that showed that businesses are increasingly choosing to conduct their business through paid subscriptions, or software as a service (SaaS.) The reason, it's cheaper and safer than trying to buy and manage their own company data systems. "According the report, e-mailed to subscribers this week, the macroeconomic downturn has likely accelerated software-as-a-service, or cloud, adoption, as customers are forced to look for lower-cost solutions to mission-critical business problems. Forty percent of survey respondents indicated that they would be more likely to use SaaS solutions in a weaker economy, due to perceived cost benefits, while only 4 percent said they were less likely to use an SaaS solution."

This means that competive small and midsize companies are searching for solutions online that are tailored to their company's needs. Mavenlink speaks to this by offering affordable project management software that is as cutting edge as it is easy to use.

The Freelance Generation

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:34:00 +0200

The Philosopher Eric Hoffer once wrote that during times of change, it is the learners who inherit the world while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists. Well in today's quickly changing environment, the learners are often independent consultants, finding clients one-by-one and growing their business by adapting to a changed world.

Lila Nordstrom writes for the HuffPo that the freelance career-style is rife with struggle, from finding affordable health insurance to keep a consistent stream of money coming in:

"My generation will work differently than those before it, but we still will need the same basic things: roofs over our heads, doctors we can afford, a retirement plan that will buy us more than cat food, and the chance to be upwardly mobile."

This is why we created Mavenlink - to make it easier for independent professionals to manage their clients and projects more efficiently so that they can be more successful each day.

Mavenlink Launches YouTube Channel

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:24:00 +0200

If a picture tells a thousand words, I’d love to find out how many words a video gets across, especially an animatics video in the deft hands of The Incite Group. It is an incredible medium for story telling.

In thinking about our anchor video, there was no question that it needed to speak to the independent consultants and freelancers. After talking extensively with these independent professionals about their world, we wanted to try and capture the intersection of their story with the story of Mavenlink.

We hope you enjoy our take on how Mavenlink supports the ever changing workforce.

Discussion with Nicole Black re: Mavenlink Technology

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:15:00 +0200

This morning Nicole Black released a screencast (audio & video) review of Mavenlink’s comprehensive online collaboration platform built for the consultant/lawyer and their interactions with clients.

In the screencast, Nicole asks Roger Neel and myself questions about Mavenlink in general, walks through a demonstration of the product with us, and speaks to the specific applicability for the legal profession. It is a short 15-20 minute screencast, and provides a great opportunity to hear firsthand our impressions of the technology. In the screencast, you will hear about:

How to invite colleagues/clients into a workspace
Collaboration options within the workspace
Upcoming Mavenlink features (Private Networks, Task Management) Pricing

The Indispensable Worker

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:05:00 +0200

Business Week recently presented a somewhat gloomy outlook for the US worker entitled “The Disposable Worker”. Citing numerous statistics, the article lays out in excruciating detail the challenges facing the “permanent temporary workforce”.

Bonuses tied to managing costs and maximizing short term profits creates incentives for managers to minimize full time staff.
The increased accessibility of talented onshore and offshore resources allows corporations to find “just in time” resources lowers the risk of delays, lower quality work or increased costs historically associated with contract labor.
The use of temporary or contract resources spans across the entire workforce, from “sneaker footed admins” to executives.
“A lack of job security and health-care benefits, as well as social ties to the rest of the workforce, increase stress levels for temps and contractors.”
The decades long pattern of the American worker accepting lower pay is likely to continue.
Pulling few punches, the authors even go so far as to point out that “temporary or contract workers face a higher risk of developing mental health problems like depression”.

From my perspective, there is no question the US worker faces unique challenges in the face of these driving corporate changes, and I think the attention brought to the issue by Business Week is critical. However, it seems hard to fathom that the changes afoot are being driven exclusively by corporate America. Job satisfaction has seen a steady decline since 1987, dropping steadily from 61.1% to the 2009 response of 45.3%. Playing into these job satisfaction numbers is the impact corporate America is having on the quality of life of its employees. Looking at the same time period, from 1987 to 2009, non-farm workers have been squeezed for a combined 57.2% increase in output/hour, with a 26.6% rise in total hours worked. That makes a huge difference in the amount of time spent working for your employer and the stress levels during those working hours. It’s no wonder you hear people talking about the “rat race”, working around the clock, and never being able to leave the job behind even on vacation. In this environment, the US worker is understandably going to be considering all alternatives exclusive of corporate initiatives.

While I hesitate to say record unemployment is a positive thing for a workforce, I do think Business Week and many other recent publications are under estimating the potential opportunity this economic shift presents to the US workforce, and the resiliency and ingenuity that workforce will show in its response to the opportunity. As long as businesses of every size and shape continue to believe that they are only as good as their people, the individual will have a hand to play. The key is to learn to play that hand from outside the four walls of the business.

A key next step is to build technologies, services and resources that will help smooth the transition for this workforce:

Independent workers need to have reasonable access to health-care and other benefits.
The contract workforce has to have greater control of its incoming business opportunities, establishing tight knit referral networks so they are not dependent on corporations finding them.
Individuals need to develop specialized skills that allow them to sell value as opposed to hours, marketing their skills across multiple employers so they are not dependent on any one income stream or client.
Advisors and Educators need to apprise new independent workers to the challenges and opportunities presented by variable income streams, including retirement planning and tax implications.
Technologies need to be developed to improve efficiencies in the business relationship between businesses and their contracted workforce, efficiencies that can lead to improved margins for both sides.

The US worker isn’t going anywhere without a fight and there will be plenty of companies and organizations like Mavenlink (Mavenlink, Freelancer’s Union) that will rise up and stand squarely in their corner.

New Feature: Private Workspace Messaging

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:49:00 +0200

No matter what your area of expertise is, who you consult for, or what your role is on a project, there is almost always a need for a private conversation between a few of the participants. People working on a project generally have a role:

The guy who’s the main collaborator with his feet on the ground
The lady who signs the checks, but isn’t really involved in the day-to-day
The boss who’s fragmented and should only be involved in the final review phase
The peanut gallery that asks if "that should be blue…?"
Etc…

In our old workspace, unless you kept the project participants fairly tight, it was difficult to keep things private without reverting back to email and losing the power of capturing all conversation/documents in one place. With the new Mavenlink workspace and private messaging, this is an issue of the past. You can now have all interested parties participating in the project, but be confident that you can include only the right audience on any message/attachment.

We were pretty sure this would be a big request and we were correct. We didn’t want to build it until enough people asked. Try it out and get on our GetSatisfaction page to let us know what you think and what we should build next!

New Feature: Email Integration and Response

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:40:00 +0200

I’m excited to be introducing our newest feature: the ability for you to reply to workspace activity directly from your email!

Many of you have asked for it and we agree - this is definitely one of the most useful features we’ve developed to date. While managing our own projects in Mavenlink, we have found that sometimes it’s more convenient to just respond via email versus logging in. This is particularly true while on the road.

Now, clients and consultants working within the Mavenlink project workspace can use their iPhones, Blackberries, and desktop email clients to not only keep tabs on their projects, but also keep in touch with the other project participants.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Decreasing Employee Loyalty Spurs the Rise of the Independent Professional

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:42:00 +0200

A good friend of mine recently (by choice) turned a full time position into a contract position so that he could take on more clients. In less than 2 months he had 5+ new clients, each of which on its own could turn into a full time gig. As I listened to my friend describe his good fortune, what became apparent to me was that more than the flexibility of being his own boss or the new found financial opportunity, the thing that gratified him most of all in his new independent role was the security. “I’ve always worked essentially for one client, my employer. When I started, I never thought about that client not being there as long as I did a good job. Lately, I couldn’t get the fear of that one client disappearing out of my mind. I don’t ever plan on being at the mercy of one client again.”

80’s

In the past, choosing the independent route was considered the way of the gambler, the entrepreneur, with tons of upside but plenty of risk. That risk profile continues to change as full time employment becomes more and more tenous. Beginning with the first real widespread use of the “layoff” during the early 1980’s recession, the loyalty between employees and their employers has been on a steady downward slide as corporations are unable to provide or even communicate a strong sense of security. Once the gigantic monkey wrench was thrown into the notion that your corporate employer would provide a safe, reliable career, corporations and the positions they offer became a “stepping stone” along a migratory career path as opposed to the career path.

90’s

The downturn of the 90’s brought along another wrinkle, the onset of the full time employee turned contract worker. Rather than severing ties completely with employees as the need for their full time help diminished, corporations began turning to them, sans employment benefits, on a part time contractual basis.

Today

The current recession brings along its own unique impacts on the employee/employer relationship. In the midst of the downturn, corporations are striving more than ever to become lean, agile, profit making machines, forcing renewed consideration of all resource options available to them, including full time employees, outsourcing, a contingent workforce, or a combination thereof. Unemployment climbing over 10% is remarkable. The fact that economists are predicting that the unemployment rate is headed for 12%-13% is unprecedented. For the first time there is general agreement amongst the experts that the full time employment positions are not coming back. More so than any previous recession, the core fabric, the loyalty, of the corporate workforce is being shaken, and as a result stirred into action.

The Rise of the Independent Professional

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:03:00 +0200

We’ve seen the rise of the Independent Party, Independent Film, Independent Music, and Independent Media, but there seems to be a new movement afoot that just might be more important than all combined, the rise of the Independent Professional. While the other “Independent” movements impact, or have the potential to impact, our two party system, our entertainment, and our ways of consuming information, none have the potential to affect our economy or our livelihood as much as the Independent Professional movement. While the magnitude of the movement is still developing, there are many reasons to believe that this “Free Agent Nation” (as Daniel Pink dubs it) is here to stay:

Loyalty between employees and companies continues to deteriorate
Increased Labor Specialization is driving companies to seek niche service providers from outside their four walls
The Networked World is providing ever more opportunities for career development and learning outside of the corporation
Technologies are arising that enable independents and businesses to engage around projects on an as needed basis, rather than extended contractual based relationships
Costs for businesses to hire and retain employees continue to rise
Unique providers are stepping up to fill the benefits and insurance void for independent professionals historically filled by the corporate world

Network Economy, Network Career

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:27:00 +0300

As we wrote in our first installment of this series, important trends in productivity, disruption, and individual responsibility are re-shaping the way that people work. We are witnessing the emergence of the Network Economy, distinguished by decentralization and openness. These trends are having an impact on the structure and behavior of organizations and their internal systems. In addition, their impact is being felt at the individual level, particularly in how people think about, plan, and conduct their careers.

Network Opportunities

In the Network Economy, de-centralization and openness lead to more widespread distribution of, and access to, knowledge and resources. Individuals have ready access to a vast array of research, production, and distribution tools; agile teams can form within or across organizational boundaries to accomplish specific tasks; organizations can access a wider range of talent and a larger, more varied store of knowledge. And as networks grow, they become more valuable, since each node can provide additional resources to all others. Cultural observers and theorists recognize the enormous collaborative and transformative potential of the network; as Kevin Kelly notes, “…we are just beginning to scratch the surface on how people come together to collaborate and get work done.”

Network Challenges

However, the network also presents challenges to traditional business models. As we pointed out previously, and as others are actively working to put into practice, decentralization and openness tend to weaken traditional command and control hierarchies and organizational boundaries (silos), and ultimately lead to diminished value of intellectual property as a business differentiator.

New Principles of Network Careers

Successful organizations will adapt and transform to meet the challenges of the Network Economy. For individuals, there is a parallel need. Many, especially the younger Generation Y now entering the workforce, have responded, sometimes intuitively, and sometimes systematically to the changing dynamics of work. Fortunately, the decentralization and openness that characterize the Network Economy both illustrate and provide the means to realize, new career principles for the Network Economy:

Reputation Beats Credentials

As the network grows and reputation models are refined, the traditional interview and static resume will reveal much less about candidates than their online presence. At present, job screenings take various online sources of information into account, mainly in the negative. Increasingly, candidates will be expected to be well-established in general online professional channels as well as industry-specific ones. Static qualifications will always be important, potential employers and partners will also expect to see the impact of your work on the organizations and people you have been involved with. As online channels become more prevalent and influential, they will evolve into tools that organizations will use to actively create positions tailored to the talent that they need to attract.

Work With, Not For

Increasingly, organizations and individuals are viewing employment of all kinds as opportunities to partner and collaborate. On the positive side, networks are making organizations more flexible and adaptive at moving between autonomous and collaborative modes of working and capitalizing on knowledge and talent wherever it resides; on the negative side, the degree of disruption in modern business is making a linear path up the ladder increasingly uncertain. Workers who focus on providing value at every opportunity will acquire reputations and connections that will help them advance regardless of their position in the hierarchy.

Out-Reach Beats In-Group

The network paradigm of lowering barriers and increasing access extends to social relationships as well. Social advantages based on family, school, and other affiliations will always exist; however, networks provide a neutral environment in which to connect with influential people, as well as a showcase for talent. The impact of the old adage ‘it’s not what, but who you know’ will level off, with both ‘what’ and ‘who’ becoming mutually reinforcing aspects of reputation and competence.

Just as organizations that want to participate in networks will need to become more open, and will need to contribute back to the network, individuals who participate only in ‘in-groups’ will be increasingly isolated, with little to offer the greater knowledge flow, and will no longer have much to offer those outside the group, and their influence will wane.

Reward Follows Value

Remember Do What You Love, the Money will Follow? In the Network Economy, low barriers to entry and increased access to production and distribution resources enable anyone with talent to conceive, research, and execute projects independently of traditional employment or academic/institutional sponsorship. This is fast becoming the norm in many fields; talented individuals are not waiting for permission or support to pursuing their calling.

Career boot-strapping and transitioning in the Network Economy will be far less reliant on traditional post-graduate work, coveted internships, entry-level positions, and lateral moves. Reputation-and portfolio- building will be talent-driven, and far less dependent on institutional ties and support.

Continuing Evolution

There is little doubt that the economy of work is evolving, and with it, the very nature of what a career entails. This process is certain to exert pressure on other aspects of the work/life continuum that are currently bound up with the traditional employment model. As more responsibility falls on individuals, we may see network effects helping to establish communities around career concerns, goals, tools, and strategies, including coping with crucial services, such as long-term financial stability and health care – an evolution from safety net to safety network.

If the Network Economy model prevails, we would expect to see the financial stability and health care resources provided in the current employment model become decentralized and open. This could lead in turn to a re-structuring based on independent, community-defined standards, to which providers along the supply chain would subscribe and add value.

In our next post… we’ll look at how these network career principles empower both clients and service providers through virtuous cycles of value, reputation, and empowerment.

We’d like to hear from you… do these principles resonate with how you are pursuing your career goals? Is the social web opening up your network, and are you seeing more opportunity as a result? What are the most pressing career needs not being met, or gaps that need to be filled, as the Network Economy evolves?

Trends that are Re-shaping the Way We Work

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:18:00 +0300

We started Mavenlink because we recognized that the world of work is changing dramatically, and that we are on the cusp of a new era in the workplace. Here at the Mavenlink blog, we’ll be exploring various aspects of change in the work-world by connecting with leading ideas and points of view, and bringing those perspectives into focus with the help of our community.

The modern work-world has always been dynamic, and constant adaptation is a given for both organizations and individuals. Today, however, economic, technological, and social forces have converged to produce change at an unprecedented rate. Hagel, Brown, and Davison argue that we have reached the point of permanent disruption, distinct from the periodic, temporary disruptions followed by periods of equilibrium that characterized previous eras.

The financial upheaval of 2008 sent a shockwave through the global economy that has accelerated and amplified the trends of the past few decades, namely, increasing productivity, disruption, and individual responsibility. In addition, digital networks for information and communication are having a profound effect on the direction and velocity of these trends. Now, as the world economy struggles to recover from recession, the employment landscape is permanently altered. Where some see a ‘jobless recovery’, however, we see the nature of employment itself shifting toward what G.A. Marken describes as the era of the empowered independent worker.

Increased Productivity through the Network

Given the current state of the economy, it’s easy to forget that improved technologies and business processes are making workers more productive, in part by exposing a broad range of networked resources for communication, collaboration, and production to individuals. Workers are now capable of delivering entire projects individually or in small autonomous groups, free from time and location constraints.

While businesses are enjoying networked productivity gains, people who work for them, including many influential ones, are using the new social features of the web to form and join online communities. For some, these communities, organized around specific areas of knowledge, are a primary locus of contribution and reputation, as important to their careers as the positions they hold within corporations. Meanwhile, businesses realize that the social web now holds valuable knowledge that they can access only on the communities’ terms.

Both individuals and organizations have expanded beyond corporate boundaries to participate in a new, expanded knowledge environment which is not governed by traditional employment relationships. It remains to be seen whether new types of economic relationships develop as businesses strive to tap into community knowledge while simultaneously coping with continued disruption.

Emerging Strategies in the Face of Constant Disruption

The current business environment is hyper-dynamic, global, and characterized by rapid change and rising uncertainty; re-organizations, re-alignments, global initiatives, mergers, and acquisitions are increasingly frequent occurrences even within formerly sedate sectors of the economy. With organizational structure and staffing levels and locales in constant flux, and institutional memory often lost in the shuffle, even workers whose positions remain intact can find themselves in unfamiliar territory. Voluntary and involuntary mobility reinforces the need for a network that extends beyond the corporate org chart.

The scope, speed, and frequency of change, along with diminished workplace loyalty and increased workforce volatility, have weakened the effectiveness of the traditional command and control approach. As businesses look beyond their walls to access (and contribute to!) wider community knowledge sources, they must rely on what Tammy Erickson calls ’discretionary effort’ to meet their goals. This means developing strategies to ‘pull’ in contribution and collaboration from the most talented and motivated resources across the network, regardless of employment status and reporting structure. Given the fact that knowledge work can only be evaluated at completion, not when it is in process, successful ‘pull’ strategies will depend not only on matching skill sets, but more importantly, on reputation.

In the new environment of constant disruption, both individuals and businesses must rely increasingly on networked relationships and knowledge sources that extend beyond corporate boundaries.

From Entitlement to Individual Responsibility

The work world, and society in general, has been moving away from the 20th century model of benefits, guarantees, and entitlements toward an individual ownership or entrepreneurial model (see CNNmoney.com – The demise of the ownership society). As part of that trend, businesses are shifting responsibility for major items, such as long-term financial stability, healthcare, etc. to the individual. No one expects that businesses will discontinue benefits entirely, but it is reasonable to assume that the network will play a role in transforming this arena as well.

As HR systems become more powerful, flexible, and transparent, businesses will be able to offer more variety by allowing employees to partner with a range of service providers. And as compensation and benefit models become more flexible, individualized, and decentralized (perhaps ultimately becoming independent of the traditional employee relationship), individuals will assume greater risk and responsibility for negotiating and managing those resources; we expect that knowledge communities will arise to help close the gap and enable individuals to take on and excel at this considerable task.

In our next post… we’ll talk more specifically about the emerging network economy, how it might affect the very concept of career, and how knowledge of one’s strengths and values will be even more critical for success in the future.

In the meantime, we’d like to hear from you… Are these trends affecting your job or the companies you work with? Do you feel like constant disruption is now the norm? What successful strategies have you found for dealing with it? Would you welcome more freedom from the constraints of traditional employment relationships, or does the lack of viable options for corresponding support services make it too risky?

New Feature: Multi-User Projects & Workspaces

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:47:00 +0300

It is my pleasure to introduce our latest major feature - multi-user projects and workspaces. It was through some of the initial feedback of our community that we prioritized this feature and made it happen ahead of other things we have planned and we could not be happier with how that worked out. As we have been testing it over the last few days, we realized that it really does take Mavenlink's workspace and project capability to the next level. It brings Mavenlink in-line with how most of us work: in groups.

What does this mean for you?

When you post a project or engage as a Maven, you will have an opportunity to invite a colleague to the project to work with you. Whether it's to collaborate on the project together or hand off to another resource within your company, we think you'll find it very useful to team up on projects.

We're going to be layering on roles/privileges over the next few weeks as we begin getting feedback from our community. Please let us know either directly or through GetSatisfaction (feedback tab on the right) what you think!

Passionate About Quality

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:54:00 +0300

One of the things that the team at Mavenlink is most proud of and vows to protect is the high quality of the Mavens that have joined our charter community. There is no question that the individuals and firms that have signed up to date are impressive both in the depth of there expertise and there ability to deliver valuable services to the small business clients that need there help. As we continue to roll out new features to showcase the talents of our Mavens, you will see us work passionately to maintain the high caliber of professionals that we hope our clients and maven community come to expect from Mavenlink.

Measures in Place:

Screening of Maven profiles, backgrounds and experience
Requiring real names and robust profiles for transparency on the site
Linkages to other social and business networks
Community Feedback- Ratings provided by peers and Clients relating to quality of services and real work performed on Mavenlink
Building a business model that targets quality of service not quantity of providers or bidders
Groups for peer to peer development and education

Upcoming Maven Programs:

Updates to the find a Maven experience
Enhancement of the Maven Profile and Mavenlink promotion and marketing of individual Mavens
Training, Skill Development and Career Development to succeed as Mavens in the new economies of work
Additional Screens to validate certifications, background
Development of a business connections within Mavenlink focused on expanding your trusted personal network for getting work done

Our goals for these initiatives are pretty straightforward. The quality of the Maven community is critical to build Client trust. Additionally, we want to develop a level of trust between Mavens, enabling the community to swarm together and collaborate where appropriate to solve complex, multi disciplinary challenges and projects. If we are successful in developing a strong and talented pool of expert providers, there is limitless potential in the work that can be done by the community. If we are successful, Mavenlink will be a site that enhances, not detracts, your personal brand.

New Ways to Work

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:25:00 +0300

Media, television and bloggers alike are clamoring about changes in the way people work. Journalists, Economists, Academics, Businesses, and just about every one you run into these days, seem to agree on a couple of things.

One, the market need for short term, contract based, Just in Time professional services is growing. Small businesses, pressured more than ever to do more with less, are turning online to find talent and ways to complete projects without adding permanent staff (see Wall Street Journal, Negotiating the Freelance Economy).

Two, there are no signs of any near term returns to the 9-5 cubicle life. The corporate world as we know it has forever changed, driving a new perspective on the future of work. (see Time Magazine, The Future of Work). The internet, the opportunity presented by remote collaboration, and the diminished loyalty between employer and employee will continue to cultivate a growing community of professional consultants working on a contract basis as opposed to a permanent full or part time basis.

What remains to be seen is how small and medium sized businesses are going to effectively get work done in this new world. At 26% of the current US workforce, and growing, the 40 million plus freelancers clearly offer an unprecedented value to these businesses desperate for their services. But how do you sift through the maze of providers to find the right one? Can you build trust and rapport between a business and a provider while avoiding the inefficiencies of face to face meetings? Are the tools and technologies in place to successfully complete a transaction once a business and provider engage?

These are the questions that Mavenlink will answer over the coming months with the help of our growing community. Small and medium sized businesses will finally have a place to find and engage with professional consultants and expect high quality service. Highly talented Mavens will finally be able to shed the negative connotations of the freelancer label, spending time in a work environment that compensates them fairly for their efforts and develops the skills that are going to be necessary to succeed in this new economy.