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In Business, It’s All an Experiment
Feb 10th
To paraphrase from “The Joy of Living,” a bird needs two wings: the wing of wisdom and the wing of practice.
I wouldn’t want to learn from a teacher who never experiences and only theorizes, nor would I want to learn from one who never reflects on his experiences and, therefore, never gains wisdom.
When you’re trying to run your own business, I think you need time to experiment and try new methods and approaches to your systems and your work. But you also need time to reflect on what’s working and what’s not so that you can modify your direction as you go.
I’ve talked with several business owners in the past few months who have recently become known as experts in their respective niches, and they all have said that even though they know that they’ve been at it for, in some cases, 10 years or more, it’s still hard to feel like an “expert” at what they do (or maybe it’s just strange hearing themselves called that). The truth is, though, they have been doing their work, learning their trade, figuring out how to be successful for years and have earned that title, even if it is strange to hear it themselves.
No, they still don’t get it right all of the time. They still flounder and figure things out as they go, just like the rest of us, but I still personally value their insight very much. By learning from their wisdom, even as they continue to practice, I save myself some steps here and there, and sometimes I even save myself a lot of headache and heartache from side-stepping mistakes they’ve made and that they’ve been so kind as to help me avoid.
Certainly, you want to figure out how to get it right so that (sooner rather than later) you can do the things that will help you succeed in your business, but you also have to save room for experimentation and for failure. It’s how we learn, it’s how we grow, and ultimately, it’s how we succeed.
What have been the greatest experiments of your business, whether they ultimately failed or succeeded?
Photo by Flickr user mikebaird, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Portable Apps for the Mac
Feb 9th
I have a keen interest in portable apps (like those covered by Doriano) from my time spent working on client sites. Having a suite of productivity applications on a USB flash drive has come in handy many times in my consulting career, especially when I’ve needed a graphics application.
The Windows portable apps suites seem to better known, but I came across a slew of free Mac portable apps while researching another topic, so I thought I would share them here, as they should be useful if you ever have to “hot seat” on a customer’s Mac or breathe some life into an older Mac that may not have all the software you require. In each case, the install routine follows Mac standards, which makes installation from a Flash drive simple and quick.
Portable GIMP. The popular open-source alternative to Adobe Photoshop is available as a portable application, which can come in handy if you work on projects where graphics applications are in short supply. It requires X11 to run.
Portable Firefox. Mozilla Firefox isn’t always available on our clients’ machines, but Portable Firefox is an easy alternative to pack along for testing or other activities. While this version of Firefox is compatible with extensions, you are best keeping it “lean and mean” if running Firefox from a USB drive. Portable Firefox will let you import your local Firefox preferences if they are available on the machine.
Portable Camino. If Firefox isn’t your browser of choice, you can use Portable Camino to meet your portable browsing needs. The good news is that the portable browser’s features are on a par with the full version.
Portable Adium. This portable version of the popular multiprotocol and open-source Instant Messaging client supports AIM, GTalk, Yahoo and Jabber IM. Portable Adium lets you import your local Adium preferences if they are available.
Portable Nvu. The portable version of Nvu can come in handy if you need a text editor for editing HTML and other files.
Portable AbiWord. Portable AbiWord is a great portable word processor for most general word processing uses.
Portable OpenOffice.org. There is a portable version of the popular open-source office suite available. However, the only stable version is for the PPC platform, with the Intel version still in testing and not ready for use yet.
Remember, if you plan to take a USB flash drive with portable apps to a client site for use of one of their machines, you should always check their IT security policy, because they may have security restrictions in place.
Do you use Mac portable apps? Which ones?
3 Places to Discover New and Relevant Content
Feb 8th
Web workers are a busy group, and it can be too easy to get buried in our work while rarely surfacing to keep up with the latest news, trends and other information that we should be learning. While I love my RSS reader and check it frequently, RSS readers have limitations. They are best for keeping up with information that you have added to your reader because you know you want to read it. What about all of that other information from sites that you don’t already read?
One of the best ways to find this news and interesting information is by using sites that provide smart ways to aggregate content. In some of these examples, the content is curated by real people, but in others, it’s generated algorithmically in that the posts being linked to or discussed rise to the top. Here are a few of my favorite ways to discover new and relevant content to get you started.
Techmeme
Techmeme is probably the most well-known way to find the hottest tech industry news. It uses a combination of human editorial input and algorithms to find the posts that people are talking about and linking to. My favorite thing about Techmeme is that it has an excerpt of the main story along with links to many of the other bloggers who are discussing the same topic. It’s easy to get a quick understanding of the story, while getting a look at how different people are reacting to the news. These reactions can be particularly fascinating for some of the more controversial stories. I use Techmeme to keep up with the news that all of the rest of the bloggers are discussing so that when I go out with my geeky friends in the evening, I’ll be ready to talk about the latest news.
The Twitter Tim.es
My new favorite content discovery site is The Twitter Tim.es because my personalized page is curated by the people that I choose to follow on Twitter. It takes the links posted by the people you follow and links from friends of friends, and puts them into a newspaper-style layout with the most frequently tweeted links at the top with larger headlines. Since I only follow people on Twitter that I really want to keep up with, the content that appears on my Twitter Tim.es page is highly relevant for me. It usually contains a mix of general technology information and Portland news, which is my perfect mix. You will need to sign into Twitter to create your pages, but as it uses oAuth to authenticate with Twitter you don’t have to give up your Twitter password.
Lazyfeed
I’ve just started using Lazyfeed, but it shows some real promise. You pick any topic that you want to learn about, and it provides real-time updates on the most recent content in your topic. It has a couple of features that make it particularly useful. First, it is really easy to add or delete topics, which makes it a great way to keep up with a hot topic temporarily (like a product launch) and then delete the topic after the buzz dies down. It also suggests related topics, which can be helpful when you are starting research on something new or to pull in some additional information.
What are your tips for discovering new and relevant content?
Improve Productivity by Avoiding Going Online Before Breakfast
Feb 5th
In the old days, it was traditional to get up, get dressed, and read the newspaper — or listen to the news on radio or television — over coffee and breakfast.
These days, though, I’ve been getting up at 5 or 6 a.m. In a lot of ways, the early morning hours are a great time to write and do projects that require uninterrupted effort. But I find that it’s way too easy to get sidetracked. Since I work at home, I’m tempted to sit down at the computer first thing in the morning to “check my email.” Unfortunately, too often, I find that “checking the email” has turned into a marathon session of “checking the email, responding to email, reading online news, and catching up on Facebook and Twitter…” and the next thing I know, it’s already 9:30, and I haven’t yet eaten or gotten dressed.
So I’m going to try a few things to regain my mornings:
- Turn off my computer at night. Not only will I save energy, it will require an extra effort to turn it back on in the morning.
- If I must leave my computer on for some reason, I plan to shut down my mail software, web browser, RSS reader, Twitter client and anything else that’s likely to send notifications overnight. I’ll probably leave my IM client on, but will set my status to “away” or “not at desk.”
- Route my business email accounts through a service like AwayFind. I used this a while ago, but haven’t tried it since Thursday wrote about its new features.
- Use a VoIP service like onSip to set my business phone lines to take messages, or forward calls to me in an emergency. I’ve found that most clients are quite understanding about what’s really an emergency.
- If I do turn on the computer in the early morning hours (for instance, if I get an idea that I want to write down), I won’t fire up my email client or my browser, but will instead go directly to my word processor or to Evernote.
It’s going to be a challenge to follow these recommendations, especially since I live on the U.S. West Coast, and most of the rest of the world is already working by the time I get up. We’ll see how I do.
How do you keep your mornings to yourself?
Photo by stock.xchng user swissboy
Sendible Relaunches; Now a Powerful Social Media Marketing Tool
Feb 4th
Sendible, a service for scheduling and posting messages to social networks like Twitter and Facebook, has recently relaunched with some great new features that should prove very useful for social media marketers.
Unlike many of the services that Doriano mentioned in his free Twitter automation tools roundup, Sendible lets you schedule and send messages to a myriad of services, including Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Plurk, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Brightkite and a host of others.
It’s much more than that, though. Since we that we last wrote about it back in 2008, Sendible has relaunched with some significant upgrades. These changes make it a much more useful marketing tool, allowing you to reach all of your contacts from one interface, no matter what services they use.
New features include the ability to import contacts from other services, a content discovery service that helps you find interesting or useful content to share, the ability to automatically share content from a blog, email marketing and newsletter tools, as well as social media monitoring, tracking and analytics tools.
If you’re involved with social media marketing efforts, Sendible looks to be an extremely powerful tool that’s worth checking out. A limited free plan is available (it doesn’t have many of the cool features I mentioned above), while paid plans range from $5 to $40 per month.
Do you use Sendible for social media marketing? What do you think of the new version?
Related GigaOM Pro Research:
Couldn’t Tweet Today? Don’t Beat Yourself Up Over It
Feb 4th
Frustrated because you haven’t blogged in a week or a month? Barely tweeting in Twitter? Haven’t checked out LinkedIn for too long? Missing face time in Facebook? Stop fretting. Social media won’t come crashing down if you get bogged down with work, become ill or take a vacation.
Last week, I barely had any presence in the world of social media. I missed every Twitter chat. I scheduled most of my Twitter replies, with little live interaction. When I needed a thinking break, I read a few blogs without leaving any comments. But I didn’t feel guilty, even though social media is my No. 1 marketing tool.
It took an extreme case for me to learn that panicking about missed social media and blogging time does you no good.
Learning from an Extreme Example: My Thumb Story
I’m a writer. That means I need my hands and all of my digits. Then the unexpected happened: I tore a ligament in my thumb in a tennis match. (The injury details for those wanting it.) I couldn’t type with two hands for several months. Single-handed typing was painfully slow. I tried to speed it up by just using the index finger of my injured hand, but my sick thumb swelled from the movement. I had to stop or type with one hand.
I tried speech-to-text software, but that experiment failed for me. I blogged just a couple of times in four months (as opposed to my usual couple of times per week). At least I could still tweet on a fairly regular basis since I could handle it with one-handed typing. In the meantime, to make matters worse, I couldn’t even read a book.
My injury occurred shortly before the American Thanksgiving holiday and winter break — fortunately, a time when things slow down. But I couldn’t even send holiday cards, something I had been doing for over a decade. By then, my guilt had climbed to enormous levels as I had all this time on my hands and little I could do with it, in either my personal or professional lives.
However, I found that when I could type again and returned to all the activities I had skipped, things fell in place as if I had never left. And following doctor’s orders ensured my thumb healed properly so I could jump back into my routine.
Accept that You’re Human
We’ve all had times when we missed a workout or accidentally skipped a meal. So don’t beat yourself up if you miss out on some social media of blogging time. If Rebecca Blood, one of the earliest bloggers, could stop blogging for seven months and make a comeback, the rest of us can, too. We’re humans, not machines, and sometimes we all need to take a break, whether that’s by choice or not.
It’s OK. The world understands. It’s so busy with information overload that it won’t notice. Not that you’re forgettable, but your connections will be there when you come back. Really. Take care of yourself first.
How do you handle it when you can’t “get things done”?
Image courtesy of stock.xchng user Micky Lynne
Related GigaOM Pro Research:
Black Tonic: Present Your Slides Live Online
Feb 3rd
Wolverine, Portland-based design consultancy firm, today launched Black Tonic, a web-based app that helps presenters deliver a presentation to their viewers — live and in real time.
There’s no shortage of web-based applications for authoring and publishing presentations (Google Docs, Slideshare) or screen-sharing (Yuuguu) in real time, but Wolverine has chosen to orient its Black Tonic app around a handful of basic principles that differentiate it from existing services:
- Instant “experience sharing,” synchronizing browsers for all those watching a presentation.
- Placing control in the hands of the presenter alone.
- Stripping back the interface to give prominence to the slides’ content, rather than the app itself.
After signing up, presenters’ accounts are provisioned with a custom subdomain, and they can begin to upload their slides as a series of GIF, JPEG or PNG images. Once uploaded, presenters can invite viewers to their presentation simply by issuing them with the unique URL automatically generated by the application; for example, http://webworkerdaily.blacktonic.com/izu2ar9.
The synchronized presentation sessions — powered by the company’s innovative XS technology — work great and require minimal explanation to viewers; they just click and watch. However, despite my fondness for simplicity in application and service design, the stripped-back, minimalist features of Black Tonic’s suggest a great, albeit unfinished service.
Critically, Black Tonic is missing a mechanism to directly import Keynote or Powerpoint slides, or even batch upload slide images; this raises the barrier to entry for new users. Though the XS-powered synchronization works very well, presentations need an additional medium to provide context — such as a conference call or real-time chat. Providing built-in features to set up, for example, a Skype conference call, though reducing simplicity, would provide value to users and even a route to future revenues.
Less crucially, it’s unclear if the generated URLs are permalinks. If so, should a downloadable collection of slides be available alongside privacy controls? And why not also shorten those URLs by default for further flexibility — http://bt.nc/zu2ar9, for example.
Black Tonic shows great promise and it’s worth experimenting with. I suspect that the creators — David Price and Phillipe Blanc — will be adding features rapidly as they learn how users are responding, so do register and give your feedback!
Tried Back Tonic? Let us know what you think of it below.
Related GigaOM Pro Research:
“Report: The Real-Time Enterprise“
Finding a Telecommuting Gig With Job Security
Feb 1st
One of the problems with finding a telecommuting job is that it can be hard to find a position that offers the same level of job security that you might have if you went into an office every day and spent time in face-to-face meetings with your boss.”Out of sight, out of mind” isn’t so much of a problem for an employee who doesn’t telecommute. But finding a secure telecommuting position is possible, as is creating job security within an existing position.
Finding a Telecommuting Opportunity
Debra Yergen is the author of “Creating Job Security,” as well as the creator of the Green Light Scoring Model, which helps job seekers translate their experience and education into job security. She points out that while the telecommuting job market doesn’t currently have many opportunities, due to the economic situation, if you expand the definition of telecommuting to include contract and freelance staff, there are actually many more positions available.
“Telecommuting has generally differed from contract work based on how a worker is categorized according to the benefits delivered as part of compensation,” says Yergen. “It’s critical to make that distinction in light of the current economy, as a higher percentage of companies are looking to outsource positions that were formally filled by in-house employees. If telecommuting is expanded to include contract-based and freelance positions, the market is wide open as many employers that are reluctant to increase their workforce are more often looking to outsourcing and using freelancers as a stopgap solution. Until the economy and health-care insurance situation stabilizes, look for these opportunities to continue to grow.”
In order to find a position that may be a little more stable, Yergen suggests searching through industry-specific job portals. They may not have as many telecommuting opportunities, though, while larger sites, such as Monster.com, offer more results.
Building Job Security While Telecommuting
Landing a telecommuting position isn’t enough — you’ve got to keep it. Creating job security is a matter of taking charge of your own situation. Yergen suggests demonstrating your employer’s ROI for having you as a telecommuting employee: “This can be a monetary benefit such as a reduction in overhead, or it could be immaterial benefit. For instance, if you had access to files out of traditional office hours and as a result could immediately deal with a situation in a way that was more advantageous to the company than if you had only been allowed to maintain a traditional office during traditional hours.”
However, it’s important to note that job security is never a guarantee. It’s easy to slip into a mindset that you have to be available to your employer at all hours of the day since you’re not heading into the office at all — but while boundaries may not increase your sense of a secure position, they are necessary. “While increased availability may enable you to provide more value to your employer, it’s important to have boundaries you set. It one thing if you choose to offer increased availability. It’s another thing entirely if you are expected to be on call but are not paid to be on call 24/7,” points out Yergen.
If you establish those boundaries early in a working relationship, the times that you go above and beyond will mean more to your employers.
Where do you look for telecommuting jobs?
Image by Flickr user Fabio Bruna
WWD Reader Profile: Priyanka Dalal, Social Media Consultant
Jan 29th
WebWorkerDaily readers are a diverse bunch. Every week, I profile a different reader and ask them to share what they do, how they do it, and some of their favorite hints and tips.
Who are you and what do you do?
My name’s Priyanka Dalal, and I’ve been working in Mumbai, India, as a social media professional for the last year and a half. I’m currently working for DeskAway; I’ve also worked with a couple of web startups (Inkfruit, WatBlog) and on some freelance assignments.
What’s a typical day like for you?
A typical day starts with some yoga or time in the gym. Then to DeskAway HQ, where I work for four hours or so as the in-house social media expert. After a short walk back home, I spend the rest of my time blogging about social media at PriyankaWriting, and networking.
I often go to a nearby community school in the evening to teach street kids. Meeting the kids is wonderful and makes me feel closer to my neighborhood. I am currently working on a social media campaign for an NGO that works with street kids, to popularize it and raise funds.
What gear and software do you use, and why?
I use an HP laptop which is now about three years old, but still works really well. A while ago, I suffered a virus attack that rendered Windows unusable, so I switched to Ubuntu; I’m currently on the Karmic Koala version.
For getting my work done, I mostly rely on Google tools: Gmail, Search, Reader, Docs, Calendar and Blogger fulfill most of my needs.
I also have a Sony Cybershot DSC-W180. I love taking photos and video, generally of the city and events.
What’s your favorite web working tip?
I write about whatever interests me at the time, instead of sticking to any particular topic; I feel this helps me to remain passionate about writing. As a result, I have a lot of articles about many topics. Since my blog is mainly about social media, I recently realized I can send out my extra articles on other topics for other bloggers to use as guest posts. This increases my reach (by building relationships with other bloggers and putting me in front of different readers) and gives me good backlinks to my blog.
If you would like to be profiled on WWD, get in touch with me at simon (at) gigaom (dot) com.
My Dirty Little Task Management Secret
Jan 29th
Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but I have a little problem with my task list.
I use Hiveminder for managing my tasks, and am pretty organized when in comes to creating tasks and getting them done. A big part of why I love Hiveminder and prefer it over other task management systems is because I make heavy use of prioritization…if you define “heavy use of prioritization” as someone who marks everything as urgent.
About a week ago, I noticed that my task list had this distribution for prioritization: 95 percent “highest,” 4 percent “high,” 1 percent “normal,” and no tasks at all at the “low” and “lowest” priorities. Is this because I am so important that everything I do is of the utmost importance? I wish that were so, but no. It’s because I’m not being realistic about my prioritization. That’s my dirty little task management secret.
It was when I wished that I had an option for an “ultra-high” priority for a task that I realized I really needed to make some changes in how I prioritize my task list. It’s not that I didn’t have a process for task prioritization; it’s just that my process didn’t work.
Before
Here’s the process that I was using up until today:
- “Highest” priority: Anything that clients pay me to do (this should be the first red flag).
- “High” priority: Things that are important, but don’t generate direct revenue (blog posts, side projects).
- “Normal” priority: Something I would like to get around to eventually.
I also noticed that many of my “highest” priority tasks were getting moved to the following day because I had more of them than any one person could possibly complete in a single day. A side effect of this prioritization is that I never knew what task to tackle next, which is why I needed to start a separate “next three things“ list. (As an aside, I find the “next three things” list to be pretty useful, so I might keep using it even after I get used to my new task prioritization scheme.)
After
My new way of looking at task prioritization is as follows:
- “Highest” priority: Anything that absolutely must be completed by the end of the day.
- “High” priority: Paid client work or projects where people are counting on me for a deliverable that should be completed today if possible.
- “Normal” priority: Paid client work or projects where people are counting on me for a deliverable.
- “Low” priority: Non-urgent tasks that don’t generate direct revenue and don’t impact the work of others (personal blog posts, personal side projects)
- Lowest: Something I would like to get around to eventually.
I’m already struggling with marking tasks as “low” and “lowest” priority, but I will continue to work on it. The real test will be to see whether I can achieve and then maintain a distribution for task priorities that looks more like a nice, smooth bell curve , instead of a pointy hockey stick.
What tips and tricks do you use to prioritize your tasks?
Photo by Flickr user martinroell used under Creative Commons.
Secunia Online Software Inspector Scans for Missing Patches
Jan 29th
Out-of-date, unpatched software can leave a computer open to attack from malware and hackers. Secunia, a leading provider of software vulnerability intelligence, provides a few free tools that you can use to scan Windows machines, such as the Online Software Inspector. It works via Java, so there’s no need to download anything.
The scanner checks that Microsoft patches are applied, then makes sure 70 of the applications commonly targeted by hackers (Flash, Acrobat, QuickTime, etc) are up-to-date. The scanning process is quick — on my laptop it took less than a minute, and revealed a number of out-of-date apps.
If you’re looking for a deeper scan of all of the apps on your hard drive, I’d recommend using the Personal Software Inspector instead (also free). But for a quick check-up of the software health of any Windows machine, the Online Software Inspector works well. And anything that prevents your PC from getting hacked is a step in the right direction.
Are all of your apps and patches up-to-date?
(via Techie Buzz)
Find Somewhere to Work With Laptopfriendlycafes
Jan 28th
Last year I wrote about WorkSnug, a neat augmented reality app for the iPhone that can help you find good places to work (coffee shops, coworking spaces, libraries, etc) nearby. If you don’t have an iPhone, you might like to try Laptopfriendlycafes.com. It’s an easy-to-use web site that also has a database of cafes; you can search on a location name, zip or postal code to get a listing of places nearby that might make good locations from which to work. Laptopfriendlycafes’ database lists whether each cafe has free or paid Wi-Fi, its address, whether power is available, the availability of 3G reception, as well as user ratings and comments.
Unfortunately, like WorkSnug, Laptopfriendlycafes.com’s database outside of the major cities is fairly limited. Searching in London returns plenty of results, for example, while searching in my home city of Bristol (which does have plenty of laptop-friendly cafes) reveals none. As it’s free, however, if you’re looking for somewhere to work nearby a quick search using the web site won’t cost you anything — just don’t assume that because it’s returned no results that there are no good cafes nearby.
Laptopfriendlycafes also has a companion iPhone app ($0.99, iTunes link), which covers New York, London, Sydney and Melbourne, and can use GPS to get your current location to find nearby places to work.
How do you find places to work when you’re in a new city?
Apple iPad: Good for Web Working?
Jan 28th
So, the much-discussed Apple iPad has finally arrived. But how does it stack up for web working? Last week, Darrell compiled “The Apple Tablet: What It Needs to Be Useful for Web Working,” a wish list of features that he thought were necessary for Apple’s take on the tablet PC to be a useful web working device. Let’s take a look a how the announced iPad compares to Darrell’s dream machine.
| Feature | Included? |
| Wi-Fi & 3G | 802.11n Wi-Fi, 3G (via AT&T) available at added cost |
| Tethering | No |
| Bluetooth (with input device profiles) | Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR |
| Tabbed browsing | No |
| Alternative browser support | No, as it’s running iPhone OS (and no Flash support, either) |
| All-day battery life | 10-hour battery life. |
So, all in all, OK, but it’s probably not going to be a web working powerhouse. The lack of tabbed browsing and extensions might not be that bad — I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve actually used one, as the browsing experience does seem to be pretty good, based on initial reports, and the battery life sounds great. No camera means you won’t be able to use it for video calls. On the other hand, the surprise inclusion of the iWork suite should mean that it will be possible to get real work done on the device. However, the main issue for me (and the reason that I probably won’t get one) is the cost. As you might expect for an Apple product, it’s expensive — $829 for the top-of-the-line 64GB model with 3G, while the base 16GB model without 3G is $499.
Will you be buying an iPad?
9 Business Lessons From Celebrities
Jan 27th
If you pay attention, you can find inspiration and lessons that you can apply to your business everywhere you look. Personally, I’m surprised how many lessons I’ve learned from some of my favorite celebrities.
- Lance Armstrong: Be disciplined. No business will succeed without a lot of hard work and discipline. Commit to it. Stick with it. Eventually, you’ll reach your destination.
- Paula Deen: Be yourself (and be bold about it). You will naturally succeed if you build a base of followers who are naturally attracted to your personality. Don’t worry about being liked by everybody. Just let your own unique personality shine through.
- Mr. Rogers: Be positive. I can’t imagine making it in business without a whole lot of optimism.
- Ellen Degeneres: Have fun. The daily grind, even when you work for yourself, can be dull at times. Doing something you love, surrounding yourself with clients and connections that energize you, and taking time to appreciate the good things in life make it all worthwhile, and who doesn’t enjoy a good laugh every once in a while?
- Bill Cosby: Keep learning. I used to be so intimidated by what I didn’t know. But I’ve come to realize that such a list is endless, so I just continue to work at it, and I learn more and more each day about how to build a successful business.
- Carol Burnett: Be creative. Sometimes you have to improvise. You figure it out, and you come to enjoy the journey.
- Oprah: Build a platform. To succeed in business, you have to have a group of people who believe in you, who want to hear what you have to say, and who want to support you in everything you do.
- Jim Carrey & Steve Carell: Don’t take it all so seriously. You’re going to mess up, and you will look silly on occasion. Learn to be OK with that.
- Maya Angelou: Be resilient. Things will not always be easy, but if you refuse to give up and keep bouncing back, they manage to work themselves out.
Just like certain words bring to mind certain products or companies, certain celebrities make me think of lessons or traits I hope to apply within my business.
Do any lessons or traits come to mind when you think of certain celebrities?
Image from Flickr by j a r r o d
SmartDraw 2010: An Easy-to-use Diagramming Tool
Jan 26th
Drawings and diagrams are playing an increasingly important role in creative, marketing and technical communications. If you are an independent web worker who needs to create diagrams, you need to choose your drawing tools carefully, especially if you’re like me — not a skilled artist.
SmartDraw 2010 from SmartDraw.com offers an easy-to-use drawing and diagramming solution for Windows, targeting those of us who aren’t professional graphic designers. It integrates with other tools, and has built-in features for creating diagrams for pretty much any business purpose: charts and graphs; floor plans; flow charts; matrices; mind maps; network diagrams; org charts; storyboards; project charts; timelines; and maps.
The application is available as a direct download from SmartDraw.com and costs $197 (for a single-user license), with a 30-day trial available.
Integration with Microsoft Project
The Project Chart feature includes the editing, formatting and management tools that you might enjoy in other full-featured project management applications. You also have the option to import and export Microsoft Project files. Once you’ve imported a Microsoft Project file into SmartDraw 2010’s Project Chart, you can continue modifying the overall project including time frame, tasks, milestones and properties. You also have the option to view your project chart as a Gantt chart, mind map or time line.
My import tests seemed to hang while SmartDraw 2010 was formatting the charts. Not a good sign, but despite the time it took, I was able to get very clean imports from Project into SmartDraw 2010.
Mind Mapping
Once thought of primarily as a brainstorming tool, mind maps are now used for communicating project requirements, process flows and creating other visualization artifacts. SmartDraw 2010 supports mind maps, though you may find the level of support basic compared to full-featured mind mapping applications like MindJet MindManager 8. I do like how SmartDraw 2010 includes a Mind Map view in its Project Chart feature.
Integration with PowerPoint
PowerPoint presentations do power many business meetings, even though the application lacks robust drawing tools. With SmartDraw 2010, you can plan out your PowerPoint presentations with the PowerPoint Storyboard feature, then import your storyboard directly into PowerPoint to give you a jumpstart on creating your presentation. You also have the option to send many of the charts and diagrams you create in SmartDraw 2010 directly into PowerPoint using a menu option.
Collaboration with Visio
SmartDraw 2010 includes a Visio import filter, which should assist collaboration between Visio and SmartDraw 2010 users working on the same project.
While I tend to gravitate towards Visio for my Windows-based drawing needs, I found SmartDraw 2010 to be an impressive tool with a well-rounded feature set. It should appeal to users who aren’t graphic designers and who need a diagramming tool with a short learning curve.
Have you used SmartDraw 2010? Share your experience below.
Creating a Whole New Business on the Web: Untemplater
Jan 25th
Last week saw the launch of Untemplater, a web site devoted to helping Gen-Y readers find opportunities that they’re passionate about. While the web site is full of interesting content, one fact about it will be especially interesting to web workers. Its six founders live all over the world, in places including New Zealand, Thailand and Wisconsin. Some members of the team have met each other in person, but not all of them. They’re hoping to eventually put together a retreat where they can all meet face-to-face.
Behind Untemplater: Six Co-founders
The six co-founders of Untemplater — Jun Loayza, Adam Baker, Cody McKibben, Monica O’Brien, Carlos Miceli and Andrew Norcross — also come from a variety of backgrounds. What they all have in common is that they’ve built their careers along unconventional lines, following passion and making use of technology.
The genesis of Untemplater was to help others do the same. “Each member of the Untemplater team has their own story about how they broke free from the template lifestyle,” explains Loayza. “I left the corporate world to start my own company; Cody McKibben left the U.S. to live the mobile lifestyle in Thailand; Adam Baker sold his business and now travels the world with his family. Each Untemplater member has a unique take on breaking the template lifestyle, providing a holistic view of possibilities and opportunities out there for any person in any situation.”
Loayza continues: “Untemplater defines the ‘template lifestyle’ as the following: Work hard in school, get good grades, get a corporate job, work the 9-5 cubicle, get your MBA, work up the corporate ladder, retire, die. Sounds a little harsh but that’s the template that we’ve been given ever since applying to universities from high school. Our goal is to show undergraduates and young professionals that they have the power to break free from this template lifestyle and live life on their own terms.”
Creating a Business Across Time Zones
Having team members in such a variety of time zones has offered some special challenges for the Untemplater team, says McKibben: “It has definitely been challenging to find time slots where we can all come together at the same time to get things done. Remote collaboration tools are indispensable, but when you need to get on the phone and you’ve got half the team on the West Coast and in South America and the other half in Asia/Australia, someone has to stay up really late or get up really early to make it happen.”
The opportunities that being able to work online provides have made the difference. There are certain tools that the team relies on. “For weekly conference calls among the Untemplater founders, we’ve put Skype to the test from the remotest jungle regions of Southeast Asia, and we’ve used the PBworks suite extensively, which gives us a place to keep all of our ideas, projects, to-do lists and accountability in a collaborative wiki format,” according to McKibben. “We’ve also made heavy use of Google Docs, especially when it comes to keeping track of contact lists, outreach efforts and other resource lists.”
Have you built a virtual business like the Untemplater team? Share your tips below.
