Small Business JumpStart

My List of Productivity Apps I Can't Live Without

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:38:00 +0000

Everyone has a different list of productivity apps that are "must haves", mostly because everyone works differently. Some people are 100% mobile and on the road, others never leave the office, and I am a mixed user spending about 20% of time on the road.

Here are the applications I find that after more than a year, I still use every week:

On My Laptop:
* Evernote
* Lastpass
* SyncBack
* Screenshot Captor
* IrfanView
* Firefox
* Thunderbird
* Skype
* Google Desktop Search

Websites I Rely On:
* Delicio.us
* Gmail
* Bloglines
* VitaList

Droid Apps I Use

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:58:00 +0000

Essential:
* Browser/Contacts/Phone (of course)
* Google Voice Recorder
* Gmail
* Evernote
* Handcent SMS
* Google Calendar
* MS Exchange Email
* Documents to Go
* Astrid
* WiFi Buddy

Use Often:
* eBuddy
* I-Tweet
* Facebook
* Pandora
* Aloqa
* NYC Subway Map
* ShopSavvy
* Weatherbug
* Bluetooth File Transfer

Use KickStarter to Fund your Creative Project

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:28:00 +0000

Kickstarter is a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers...

Amazon Payments processes all the pledges on Kickstarter.
Starting a project is free. Every project has a funding goal (any dollar amount) and a time limit (from 1 - 90 days) set by the project creator. When the deadline is reached, there are either of two results:

1. Funding Successful: If a project has met or surpassed its funding goal, all backers' credit cards are instantly charged and funds go directly to the project creator. Project creators are then responsible for completing the project and delivering rewards as promised. Projects continue to accept pledges until their end date regardless of their funding level.

2. Funding Unsuccessful: If a project has NOT met its funding goal, all pledges are canceled. That's it.

Rewards inspire support and can be as simple as a download for $5 or as elaborate as a hot-air balloon ride. It's up to the project creator to create, price, and fulfill their rewards. Rewards can be priced anywhere from $1 to $10,000. Project creators are wholly responsible for their promises.

If a project is successfully funded, Kickstarter will apply a 5% fee to the funds raised. If funding isn't successful, there are no charges. Amazon also charges a processing fee when funding occurs. All projects must comply with the Amazon Payments Acceptable Use Policy. A project creator has the option to cancel funding. When funding is canceled, all pledges are immediately voided. Credit card rules forbid project creators from paying themselves. Any pledges made by a project creator to themselves may cause Amazon to cancel a project creator’s Amazon account, making it impossible to receive or remove funds.

Use the project page to update funders and link to social sites like Facebook.

KnowEm - Identity, Username, and Brand Checker

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:21:00 +0000

KnowEm.com

The site KnowEm will check your username to see if it available on over 340 popular social media networks. They are nicely organized into categories as well, including: entertainment; blogging; business, video; etc.

This is great if you are starting a new business, or have a business and want to add a website/blog/social network for a new product that you are branding.

If nothing else, it is a great way to see all of the myriad social sites that are popular in a given category!

This is all done free at the site, or you can buy a plan to automatically register and check your name at these sites.

Yahoo Pipes Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:33:00 +0000

I was recently re-reading a post by ZDnet on How-To Build an RSS mashup with Yahoo! Pipes and wondered how many people have used it to do something useful. If you have used Pipes for your business let me know what you did.

Here are some more references

Examples from Yahoo
An iTunes and YouTube Example by Nick Bradbury
Examples by Marketing Studies including eBay, hedge funds, news alerts and more
Video Tutorials by Fast Wonder blog

2008 Hot (or Not) List

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:45:00 +0000

Entrepreneur Magazine had an article last year 2008 Hot List: Best Business Ideas & Trends.

I always like to look back and see how accurate their predictions were.
Here were some of the key markets and ideas proposed --

Spirits, Wine & Beer
Special Needs Food
Upscale Frozen Desserts
Biotech and Healthcare Staffing
Senior Services and Products
College Planning Consultants
Green Apparel
Green Business Services
Sunglasses, Handbags, & Specialty Shoes

There are more online in the article but I am interested in which you think were true and which were dead wrong. For example, while there is always an upscale market for most items, the state of the economy prevented any major breakouts for #3 or #9. I think #4 and #5 are no-brainers based on demographics alone. I have definitelt seen a boon in (#8) green business services including whole consulting groups starting up to offer these services. I also believe that #2 is going to be big very soon as I personally have noticed more and more Americans having special foods needs relating to gluten, allergen (e.g. peanuts), and other sensitivities.

What's your take?

6 Sites to get things done

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:13:00 +0000

PartnerUp - Network with business owners, get advice, find opportunities.

Flurry - Mobile Application Analytics: Learn how, when and where your application is used to improve your product, increase retention and grow your business - all for free.

Flauntr - 5 Professional Online Photo Editing Applications from FotoDesk.

Adobe Share - Send files to others for easy access while you maintain control.

Ultimate Boot CD for Windows - Build a bootable recovery CD that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem.

Magento - The best damn eCommerce application ever [IMHO]

Great Online Reads RoundUp

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:53:00 +0000

Here is a roundup of some great links I had bookmarked:

How to Take Great Notes [via LifeHacker]

100 Useful Web Tools to Help You Find Your Passion or Career [via online college blog]

50 tips tweaks and hacks to make the most of Google Calendar [via Virtual Hosting]

Run any GNU Linux app on windows without any virtualization [via Free Software Magazine]

Ebay Toolbox [via Mashable]

100+ Ways to Make Money Online [via Mashable]

Top 10 Ways to Put Your Remote Server to Use [via LifeHacker]

Open Source Invoicing Made EZ

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:12:00 +0000

SIWAPP is an open source web application meant to help manage & create invoices in a simple, straightforward way.

Invoices. A basic need for every business.
This web application will also be able to work as a module -interconnected through its API to many other business management applications- which takes care -the easy way- only of the billing of the company.

Siwapp is built on Symfony, a PHP web development environment, which heavily rests on MVC ideas (model, view, controller).

Google News Timeline

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:34:00 +0000

Google News Timeline is not just a fun time waster, but can be used to identify trends, get an overview perspective of a specific time period, and doing marketing research.

Go to the month view and type a keyword such as 'flu', or 'video games'.

What uses can you think of for this?

Universal IM, Email, and Social Nets with one app

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:38:00 +0000

I was a big fan of Trillian, but now with digsby I may be converted...

Digsby is all of these things:

digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list
digsby is an email notification tool that alerts you of new email and lets you perform actions such as 'Delete' or 'Report Spam' with just one click
digsby is a social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to.

Here is a list of additional features, and screenshots, and of course...it's free. Currently it is for MS Windows, but Digsby for Mac and Linux will be launched soon.

2 Free Collaborative Mind Mapping Tools for Business

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:25:00 +0000

Here are two great collaborative mind mapping tools (with free versions):

Mind Meister

Now MindMeister allows you to work on your mind maps even when you're offline. Pretty cool, huh? Using the Google Gears offline library, you can now work on all your MindMeister maps wherever you are, without the need for an internet connection.

DropMind

Seavus DropMind™ makes the most of the core mind mapping functionalities with single click navigation and an intuitive user interface. Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Your Very Own Print Shop on the Web

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:48:00 +0000

Need to send postcards or newsletters via US Mail for a marketing campaign?

Postful.com allows you to generate full-color letters and postcards using email, web forms, or API calls. Send html documents, PDFs, digital photos, Office Docs, and more. They handle the printing, folding, inserting, and delivery to the post office.

There is even an API so it can be integrated into other applications. Anyone feel like writing an integration for Google Docs or Zoho?

Pricing is reasonable and starts at just 57 cents per postcard, or 99 cents per letter.

X Marks the Spot for Small Group Collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:16:00 +0000

CollectiveX is Free Social Collaboration & Networking for Groups. You can quickly create a group site for work, church, association, non-profit, club, conferences, and even a project team. In short order you can create a site that has the following features:

Discussion Forums
Blogs
Group Calendar
email Blasts
File Storage
Photos/Videos
Subgroups, etc.

You can get CollectiveX free if you don't need site branding, don't need more than 25MB of file storage, and can live with an ad-supported site. If you want to remove any of these restrictions and also receive additional features, their Pricing Plans start at $9/month.

Top 100 Network Security Tools (ref)

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:51:00 +0000

A good reference link from insecure.org - The Top 100 Network Security Tools

Even though this list was compiled in 2006 I still use many of these tools today including Wireshark, putty, and NetStumbler.

SkyDeck is your cell phone online

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:48:00 +0000

SkyDeck is like having your cell phone online, including your contacts, text messages, phone calls, and voicemail. You can make low-cost calls from the skydeck interface, send text messages, sort and filter your contacts, and much more.

Every call you make or receive on your cell phone, every text message, and every voicemail appears on Skydeck.com.

• Check who called but did not leave a message with enhanced Caller ID

• Have your voicemails transcribed and emailed to you

• Add notes and tags to calls and messages

• Search the content of your text messages, your voicemails, and your call notes

• Make calls and send text messages from your computer using your current cell phone number

• Back up and edit your cell phone address book online

For the first time, Skydeck lets you manage your phone calls and text messages the same way you manage your email. If you really need a cell phone, you need Skydeck too.

The FREE version of Skydeck gives you this --

Back up all your contacts, calls, and texts
One click updates for your address book
Unlimited text messaging from the web
Automatic lookup of unknown numbers

The $14.95/month version adds this --

Unlimited domestic calling–use your cell phone number without using your cell phone minutes
Unlimited conversion of voicemail to text with near 100% accuracy
Unlimited voicemail storage

There is also an API so expect to see some interesting mashups with other applications soon. Here is a current showcase.

Easy way to include fillable forms and PDF online

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:39:00 +0000

Doculicious lets you easily create web forms and fillable PDF documents to embed on your websites. Here is a link to some great looking examples. Aside from being FREE, here are some other great benefits to using Doculicious:

Benefits of using Doculicious

Be notified when someone completes your form. Allows you to process orders right away.
Set the notification email to attach the form data as a CSV and/or PDF file.
Easily track, manage and process form entries.
Unique tracking codes let you match faxed or mailed forms to data entries.
Download form data as PDF or CSV. Search, process, copy, paste and export.
No need to re-type or read messy, handwritten forms.
Increased compliance by removing error-prone steps from your workflow.
Makes it easy for people to do business with you. Increase sales and client happiness.
Don't change your business processes - still use paper forms, just without the hassle.
Create styles for a templates web form. Match them to your site design and branding.

Windows Tools for Linux Users

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:35:00 +0000

PsTools by Mark Russinovich includes some handy command line utilities for Windows O/S. They are especially welcome if you are familiar with Linux. They could easily be incorporated into a remote management and monitoring script for applications such as Zenoss, etc.

The tools included in the PsTools suite, which are downloadable as a package, are:

PsExec - execute processes remotely
PsFile - shows files opened remotely
PsGetSid - display the SID of a computer or a user
PsInfo - list information about a system including how long it has been up
PsKill - kill processes by name or process ID
PsList - list detailed information about processes
PsLoggedOn - see who's logged on locally and via resource sharing (full source is included)
PsLogList - dump event log records
PsPasswd - changes account passwords
PsService - view and control services
PsShutdown - shuts down and optionally reboots a computer
PsSuspend - suspends processes

The PsTools download package includes an HTML help file with complete usage information for all the tools.

Note: some anti-virus scanners report that one or more of the tools are infected with a "remote admin" virus. None of the PsTools contain viruses, but they have been used by viruses, which is why they trigger virus notifications.

A great new free time tracking and GANTT app

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:21:00 +0000

ClockingIT is a great new free project management and time tracking application. It is hosted online but if you want the open source code (MIT/X) you can get that too.
This application is simple to use, elegant to look at, and gets the job done.

There is an interactive GANTT chart which updates in real-time as you change task estimates and due dates.
There is also a task list view which can be sort and filtered. Files related to the project can be stored in shared space. There is a timesheet report that can be exported as CSV.

Here is summary list of features from the website:

Project Management

task filters
time tracking
milstones
timeline
calendar
graphs
ajax gantt chart
drag & drop organizing
notes
comments
reports
csv export

Collaboration

private forum
private wiki
group chat / transcripts
instant messaging
email alerts
rss & ical feeds
file storage

Check out some more screenshots and a video.

MakeUseOf These Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:01:00 +0000

Another favorite blog site is MakeUseOf.

Here is a selection of some recent great small business-related articles.

Scrutinize your networks Flow

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:11:00 +0000

Scrutinizer is a network management Traffic and Bandwidth monitoring tool by Plixer that uses Cisco NetFlow ®, sFlow ®, Juniper ® J-Flow, IPFIX or NetStream to provide historical trends of traffic data across all critical network interfaces.

You can get custom reports and analyze traffic flow behavior - Flow Analytics™ is an add on module to Scrutinizer. It provides helpful overview information and monitors for internal threats.

If you love charts

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:06:00 +0000

Onlinecharttool.com lets you design and share your own graphs online and for free
It supports a number of different chart types like: bar charts, pie charts, line charts, bubble charts and radar plots.

If you need something different (or prettier) than what Excel gives you - give this service a try!

These are a few of my favorite things...

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:45:00 +0000

No, Julie Andrews is not around here as far as I know....

Instead, these are a couple of my favorite posts from some favorite blogs.
All of these have some relevance to operating a small business.
Enjoy.

WebWare -
Starter Web apps for small businesses

Toilet Paper Entrepreneur (TPE) -
115 Marketing Strategies for Small Business

Inside Facebook -
How to Import Your Blog into Your Facebook Public Profile

Blog of Tim Ferris -
A Beginner’s Guide: How to Rent Your Ideas to Fortune 500 Companies

Mashable (always a plethora of great stuff!)

85+ Tools & Resources for Freelancers and Web Workers

6 Ways to Publish your own Book

270+ Tools for Running a Business Online

20+ Free Press Release Distribution Sites

MySQL in a Box - on steroids

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:24:00 +0000

Kickfire has created the first high-performance appliance for MySQL. The appliance is easy to install, easy to maintain, and has a small form factor. There is video overview at their site.

The Kickfire appliance is architected as a MySQL pluggable storage engine which allows MySQL applications, scripts, and queries running on MyISAM or InnoDB to work without any changes.
A complete datasheet can be found at their site.

Kickfire has taken a fresh new approach to managing today’s proliferating data with the first high-performance analytics appliance for MySQL. By combining unique hardware and software
architecture, including the industry’s first SQL chip.
Kickfire delivers a potent mix of benefits:
- Incomparable database query price-performance
- Industry’s smallest and “greenest” form factor

mysql, kickfire, appliance, database

Create a Social Networking Site before you finish your lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:54:00 +0000

Elgg lets you create a social networking site for your company or group in short order. There are a growing number of sites that use Elgg such as Rucku and Eduspaces.

Elgg runs on a combination of the Apache web server, MySQL database system and the PHP interpreted scripting language (LAMP/WAMP).

Elgg features you can use for your site include:

Avatars
Profiles
Activity Stream (similar to Facebook style)
Notifications (email, SMS)
Groups
Blogs
Embedded media
File repository functions
Wire microblog (i.e. your own personal Twitter)
Pages
Social bookmarking
Category definition
Granular access and security controls

You can also create plugins or check out the many already developed plugins for Elgg.
You can download and host an Elgg-based site on your own network, or use a hosting service.

elgg, facebook, twitter, social networking, lamp, social