Evernote is like Kudzu: Sharing Evernote Notebooks with remote workers

I’ve been an avid user of Evernote for 18 months or so. This product is like Kudzu – a weed that grows at a foot a day (ask anyone from Atlanta); Evernote keeps creeping its way into new parts of my daily routine.

Until now i havent used the “share” notes feature on Evernote but i received an invite today from a colleague who works remotely with me. We’ve been pinging back and forth with ideas and sharing web sites via email but that has its limitations (very linear), so Evernote looks to be a great solution at first look.

What’s more it could be a very complimentary tool for the current product i’m developing (Flashissue ) i.e. turn the Evernote articles you read and save a into highly responsive newsletter & social media campaigns . It would work like this: your team collects useful web articles and when you’re ready to send a newsletter to your customers or prospects who have a ready-made curated newsletter waiting to go. Just import your articles to FlashIssue and you’re done. I’ll write a fuller post on how this can work later.

Using Evernote shared folders is a great way  to collaborate (although you do need a paid account if you are the one setting up the shared folder and you want people to be able to add to it)

From the Evernote Blog:

“Sharing notebooks as well as reading and tracking notebooks that have been shared with you. Lets explore the types of sharing in a bit more detail.Shared NotebooksEvernote allows both free and premium users to share notebooks privately with other Evernote users. Notebooks shared by premium users have the option of being editable by the users with whom the notebook is shared. In other words, if Bob the premium user shares a notebook with Fred the free user, Bob may choose to allow Fred to edit the contents of his shared notebook.Public NotebooksPublic notebooks which are, essentially, shared notebooks are visible to anybody who knows the notebooks URL. Public notebooks can then be linked to other users accounts so their local copy of the notebook is updated whenever the notebooks owner adds or changes the contents.When You Stop Sharing a NotebookIf youve shared a notebook—either publicly with the whole world or privately with a select few users—and you decide youd like to stop sharing that notebook, the users with whom the notebook is being shared will receive a notification in their desktop applications that the notebook is no longer shared with them. The notebook itself, however, will remain in the users Shared tab and the user will still be able to view as well as edit, if they were given permission to do so initially the contents of the notebook. The notebook will not sync any changes made once it is no longer shared. You can export the notes and import them into your own notebooks, but Evernote sync will not work until the un-shared notebook as been removed”.

Read More:  An Introduction to Sharing.

Related articles

• 10 Tips for Using Evernote Effectively (readwriteweb.com)
• 8 Great Ways Couples Can Use Evernote Shared Notebooks ” Evernote Blogcast (web20forstudents.wordpress.com)
• New Evernote Integration Released! (shoeboxed.com)
• The Rise of Evernote–and Why You Should Take Note (pcworld.com)

From unique visitors to e-commerce conversion rate, email unsubscribe rate to lifetime value, there are dozens of metrics that can help you track the health and performance of your business. While everyone has their favorites, we’ve compiled a list of 73 of the most important analytics for online businesses of all types. While not every metric will apply to your business (and you might kill yourself trying to track all 73!,) we hope this list will inspire you to identify opportunities to improve how you measure your venture. Read our mega-list and see if there are any you’re missing. And if you don’t see your must-measure metric of choice below, let us know in the comments; we’ll continue to update this post as we find more metrics that help move your business needle.

via 73 Must-Measure Metrics for Your Online Business | SlideDeck Web Slider.

Yacht Island Design proposes otherworldly, extravagant concept boats that resemble, among other things, Monaco and a Tropical Island.  For the discerning mariner who feels cramped by mere mega-yachts, there’s a growing field of designers and shipbuilders eager to sell you an island. A marriage between the structural practicalities of floating oil rigs (which can weather rough seas by rising above them), and the aesthetic tastes of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, yacht islands promise a level of aquatic decadence only the most outrageous oligarch could afford.

via Your Very Own Floating Bond-Villain Lair for $680 Million – Businessweek.

Lisa Gansky, author of “The Mesh,” talks about a future of business thats about sharing all kinds of stuff, either via smart and tech-enabled rental or, more boldly, peer-to-peer. Examples across industries — from music to cars — show how close we are to this meshy future.Lisa Gansky is the author of “The Mesh: Why the Future of Business Is Sharing,” and the instigator behind the Mesh Directory www.meshing.it. Full bio »

via Lisa Gansky: The future of business is the “mesh” | Video on TED.com.

Founders of startup companies often wait to incorporate a company until they are confident that their concept is viable or fundable.  At some point, however, an entrepreneur will need to formally incorporate a company.  Several reasons exist for taking the step to incorporate.

Continue Reading: Incorporation : Startup Company Lawyer.

A concise summary of the different options available for incorporating your startup. Covers: tax treatment, fundraising, ownership (stock) and employee compensation.

C corps, LLCs, and S corps differ significantly in the areas of taxation, ownership, fundraising, governance and structure, and employee compensation.  Almost all technology startup companies that I work with are C corps.  Any company that raises venture financing will need to be a C corp in order to issue preferred stock.If founders want the benefit of flow through tax treatment with respect to losses prior to an outside financing, an S corp election may make sense as long as there are no entity or non-U.S. citizen/resident stockholders.

Continue Reading: What type of entity should I form? : Startup Company Lawyer.

People often credit their ideas to individual “Eureka!” moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the “liquid networks” of London’s coffee houses to Charles Darwin’s long, slow hunch to today’s high-velocity web.

Steven Berlin Johnson is the best-selling author of six books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience. His forthcoming book examines “Where Good Ideas Come From.”

Continue Reading Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from | Video on TED.com.

You may not realize it, but your adVenture’s Core Team, the senior executives who make the key decisions which drive the company’s strategic direction, is akin to a primitive tribe.

Primitive tribes and your startup both entail a small number of people banded together to battle an uncaring, hostile world. Like the tribe, your company’s survival is always in question and never guaranteed. Success depends upon everyone pulling together for the common good and striving to accomplish common goals. Everyone’s efforts must initially focus on survival before the tribe can prosper and eventually evolve into a thriving, self-sustaining community.

Continue Reading: What’s Your Tribal Role At Your Startup?.

1. Generate candidates for interview – use online postings, your extended network, employee referrals. Make sure that the job posting is going to attract someone you want in your team
2. Have all candidates email a resume and a letter stating why they are right for the job
3. Short list candidates for phone screening (disregard any candidates who have not taken the time to write the cover letter saying why they are right for the job). Keep the conversation to 15 mins. Your goal is to determine whether you want to interview them face to face (not whether you want to offer them the job). Come up with 10 areas that you can score the candidate – entrepreneurial, experience, creativity, cultural fit, gut feel etc. The first question i ask is what do you think of our web site and business. If they have not bothered to look at our web site, i terminate the interview (in a nice way). Have questions ready that address each category and keep notes against each category as you talk to the candidate. When you finish the call, add up their score.
4. Face to face interviews #1 – select the 5 or so candidates you think are good candidates (the best scorers) . keep to 30-45 mins
5. Face to Face interviews #2 – 1 or 2 candidates you think really could do the job. Have them interview with key people in your business ( 3 or 4 people). Do not have people compare notes until you have all interviewed the candidates. Meet with everyone immediately after everyone has finished so it;s fresh. Send a similar email to the one i’ve attached below to the people interviewing the candidates, so they have an idea of what to say. Daisy chain the interview in succession so that the candidate only has to make 1 visit. Schedule a time for you people to conduct the interviews. Interviews should be 20 minutes e.g. Tom see candidate @ 2pm, Jane @ 2.30pm and Dave @ 3pm. Tom, Jane and Dave debrief with you @ 3.30pm when candidate leaves.
6. Check references of the candidate, AS PART of the interview process, not after you have made the job offer. References should be part of your decision making process on someone.

Related articles

• Conversations with Candidates (trevorblee.wordpress.com)
• How To Really Impress During A Job Interview (personalbrandingblog.com)
• Five essential points to get across in an interview (career-advice.monster.co.uk)

When is it the right time to resign, get out or move on from a business, client or idea you been pusuing? Sometimes resigning – or firing a client – is a black and white clear cut case, like – my boss sucks, i’ve been offered the fat cat position with the competitor at double the salary or i painted the walls of Facebook in 2007 and now i have a pay-ff of $200m. But let’s face it, things are rarely that clean cut.

Here’s 4 reasons for you to get on your bike:

1. “Stick to the original plan” – i once joined a start up with a good deal of skepticism and reservation about the company’s long term ability to make money. In fact, i broke my own rule at the time: “i’m not going to back a product with a build-it-and-they-will-come business model”. Why did i do this? Because i liked the team, the space and we were funded for 18 months. It was always going to be a long short and it didn’t eventually work out but it was worth a go. When the business had run out of money and the business model had proved itself as a poor one, it was time to go. This became an easy clear cut decision because when i joned i set up a specific list of criteria against which to measure my success. This became my “original plan” and 18 months later when i reviewed this plan it was obvious to me i needed to go.
2. “Give up when the time is right” – as someone who thrives on starting up companies and products the biggest dilema is knowing WHEN it’s time to say enough is enough. It’s hard to walk away from something for me when i’ve put so much time and energy into it but this becomes easier when i avoid emotional attachment to a business idea or situation.
3. “Decide what’s right for you, not everyone else” – “How much should i be compensated” is a question i hear asked a good bit, especially around the start-up scene. There are “officially accepted” rules of thumb (you can read a good post on this here) but at the end of the day it’s time to go or not start in the first place, if you’re not getting what YOU need. I need x% of equity to make this work; i need Y salary and so on. When i become clear on this i get clarity on everything. It’s not a case of the other person being unreasonable if they dont want to pay you what you feel your worth- it’s not a personal thing – it’s just a case this is what i need. Being clear on this makes things easier.
4. “Dont let love cloud the issue” – it’s probably the hardest part for me, leaving a business. Building a successful start up involves having a great team, one where disagreement, respect, great ability, hard work and fun all come together, so moving on can be a pig. This shouldn’t cloud the issue though.

Leaving a business, killing a floundering product or just saying enough is enough, even if the sometimes the break up is hard.

Related articles

• Which Business Model Is Best: Selling Services, Software, Information Or Physical Products? (entrepreneurs-journey.com)
• £500 – indulge your business idea! (duenterprise.wordpress.com)
• 4 Brilliant Weekend Business Ideas (sweetbusinesses.com)