Over the years I’ve done plenty of consulting, and I’ve always complained about every billing solution I’ve ever used. They were not very user friendly or labor intensive to a degree that was totally unnecessary.
Freshbooks is a great answer to the prayer of invoice weary consultants or other service oriented businesses. A simple interface allows you to enter invoice data, track payments and late paying clients, and even resolve disputes. Its an invoicing service that makes me want to generate a billable event, just because its so easy and fun!
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If you are in the software development or web design business, you know the struggle to stay on top of feature requests and bugs. Porchlight is a web-based project management and bug tracking service offering user-specific milestone and project tracking, so members of your team only need to see the tasks that matter to them.
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October 12th, 2006 in Marketing | 1 Comment »
Bestselling author Seth Godin wrote a little masterpiece on “small is the new big” a while ago. I fully support his view. After years of “big killing small” (supermarkets vs. grocery stores, appearal chains vs. small shops), we are about to enter a golden age for small business.
Big used to matter. Big meant economies of scale. There was a good reason for this. Value was added in ways that big organizations were good at. Value was added with efficient manufacturing, widespread distribution and very large R&D staffs. Value came from hundreds of operators standing by and from nine-figure TV ad budgets. Value came from a huge sales force.
And then small happened. Continue Reading »
October 11th, 2006 in Startup | No Comments »
My favorites from Ian Landsman on 10 Tips for Moving From Programmer to Entrepreneur.
- Code is 5% of your business
- Design is everything, relative to the competition
- Love your customers
- Remember to design for ease of use. Even advanced users like easy.
Having been in the software business myself, I can only support his points. Coding has become more of a commodity nowadays. You need to focus on other areas to differentiate yourself from competition. There is good input in his article for anyone planning to start a software business or trying to succeed as a freelancer.
October 9th, 2006 in Sales | No Comments »
I really enjoy reading the posts of Jason Fried and the 37Signals crew on the Signal vs Noise Weblog.
In one of his posts “Hire” the right clients he writes:
Working with the right clients is absolutely critical. The trick is knowing when to say no. The wrong client can kill morale, force good employees out, and cost you big opportunities. Working the right client isn’t work at all — it’s a pleasure.
Yes, I have been there myself. It doesn’t matter if you are in retail, in an industry or offering consulting services. You will always run into “troublemaking” customers. Your are negotiating the deal, but you are feeling uncomfortable. The client presses a bit too much on price, seems complicated to work with or you may just have this “gut feeling”. If this happens, you stand a pretty good chance to get into trouble all along. You may get a sale now, but you will loose money in the long run.
I firmly believe in WIN-WIN relationships. Only they lead to successful partnerships and repeat business. Take this advice and don’t waste your money and time on the wrong clients.