37 Signals Product Suite My Way
By · CommentsAnyone who’s kept up with me over the last few years realizes I love 37 signal’s products. I’ve used them all, but always wondered why they didn’t integrate. Instead of getting stuck on that concept, I’ve embraced their exclusion and containment. I’m glad I did. It seems complicated on the surface but deep down it’s simple. You can take a look at major CRM’s and see examples of integration. You’ll see a loaded down, bogged down productivity system. People in my experience will spend all their time learning and working the system instead of getting results.
So here’s how I see the transition between 37 signals products.
Backpack for me was the end all be all. I used it for everything.- sharing pages with customers, keeping lists and running projects. Lately, I’m back to using it as I believe it was intended. A place to organize your organization. I keep reference lists (not task lists), share reference pages with customers and compile data for events, trips or major ideas. I also use the calendar to organize one step actions that happen on a particular date. I keep budget (bill payment) info on the calendar as well. Of course I ical this into Google Calendar so I can access it on my iphone wherever I go. Plus I share Google Calendar with several others. I have started to use the Backpack journal feature at night to record the days happenings.
Basecamp for me is all about projects. If you use the GTD terminology a project would be anything you can’t do it 2 minutes or less or that doesn’t have one defined next action to complete it. This is still a tough balancing act. I have most mid to large projects set up independently in Basecamp. Basecamp is also where I manage my business, my wife’s business and collaborate with key people who contract with us. We manage monthly deliverables for retainer customers along with new customer projects in Basecamp. I love Basecamp because of writeboards and milestones but template to do’s are the powerful stuff.
Ta-da lists are a new edition to the arsenal for me. I love them. Instead of keeping simple next actions (not associated with projects) in Backpack or Basecmap, Ta-da lists allows me to quickly put them into list format. That’s not the key though. Any program can do that. A text file can do that. The real power is the iphone ready site which parallels the web version. Check off something from your list on your iphone it mirrors up on my Macbook in the cloud. What do I keep here?
- Shopping lists
- Errands
- Weekly Review lists
- Daily Review lists
- Today’s tasks
- Daily supplements (you name it)
Highrise is my weakest area. That may be the case for many people. It’s a powerful platform but I think I stumble here because of the lack of sync tools in the cloud (which still boggles my mind). I do keep my contacts here and the new ability to add social media contact info has been a big addition. So much communication takes place in mobile environments or in email threads, that getting it into Highrise can be difficult. I would suggest you at least organize your contacts in Highrise and record key conversations or meeting notes. You need those kind of records and that kind of data stored somewhere. Once someone becomes a customer they usually migrate to Basecamp in my experience.
*I’m an affiliate by the way. The banners are on the home page. No big deal just telling you.
Back to the heart of GTD
By · CommentsLike anyone who gets busy; I thought I could drop the systems, work even harder and still manage to be productive. Wrong!
The last few months has given me another stern lesson in productivity. I’ve called this post back to the heart of GTD. I’ve been using David Allen’s GTD system for the last few weeks again and it feels so good to be productive again.
It feels great to be moving toward those 30,000 foot goals. It feels great to check off those next actions lists. It feels great to make project lists and to add things to my someday/maybe lists. It feels great to only consider doing tasks that can be done from certain places, certain situations or with the proper tools. It feels great to think what is the next action or is this actionable. Why do we quit doing the things that work?
So back to quick daily reviews, more thorough weekly reviews and the principles of GTD. Backpack is still my tool of choice along with the amazing free apps from Google.
I’d like to brainstorm and work with the new tasks feature in Gmail to see how that can change the GTD game. Any thoughts?
A New Direction
By · CommentsIt’s time for a new direction. I’m posting this verbatim on my other sites as well.
For the last two years, I’ve planned and built, tweaked and refined, sold and invoiced, collected and accounted. I’ve marketed and branded and promoted. I’ve written and blogged and spoke and taught. I’ve coached and consulted. I’ve laughed, cried and learned a whole lot along the way.
I don’t regret starting Simplified Solutions, LLC two years ago. It has been the single best business learning experience I have ever had. I made so many mistakes. Too many to list here. I definitely failed forward at times. The best part was that this last two years was a training ground. A preparation if you will for the greatest business opportunity in my life thus far.
As my business has started to succeed the last several months, it’s been in large part due to a company called ithemes- and a open source platform called Wordpress. I owe a lot to Wordpress and to the team at ithemes. Wordpress gave me, and more importantly small businesses, non profits and ministries; an affordable, effective, and attractive way to gain an online presence. Ithemes created some amazing themes powered by Wordpress. That made the rest pretty easy for me.
A few months back my relationship with this amazing company grew a little closer. I always wondered how employable I was after being in sales most of my life and then running a small freelance business. Deep down though I knew I could follow a great leader and be a contributor on an amazing team. Well I’ve found both. The great leaders are Cory Miller and James Dalman. The great team is the team at ithemes and now WebDesign.com.
About a month ago, we started a serious dialogue about me joining a new venture that ithemes was launching. Time passed, many chats and conference calls lined out the details and I flew to Dallas this past weekend to meet the team and join this new venture – WebDesign.com
I am joining a thriving team at ithemes and have become their first sales consultant with WebDesign.com. To say I’m thrilled would be the understatement of the year.
We have a rockin team and we are ready to show the world an amazing model for web design and the customer service that comes with it.
You can follow all the details here at http://webdesign.com
You can also follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/webdesigncom
My new email address is bryce@webdesign.com and the cell phone is still the same.
I have already spoken to most current customers and this transition will be very seamless. I’m just joining the company that I promoted and sold before accept now I have a team of programmers, project managers, coders, designers, graphic designers, tech interns, owners and partners behind me. Way cool!
Simplified Solutions, LLC will still be an accounting entry in Quickbooks. Some things will trickle in and trickle out but I’m putting my 100% focus on making WebDesign.com the best in the world.
Organizing a Golf Scramble Fundraiser
By · CommentsSince I’m in the middle of this process right now, I figured it was a good time for this post.
Aside from the bureaucracy that your event or cause or benefit or organization must go through, here are the steps I use to duplicate Golf Scrambles over and over.
Step #1 You can’t do it all yourself. Find a small team maybe two or three others who can help. It would be best if everyone brought different personalities or skills to the table. For instance in the scramble I assist with every year, we have one person who knows a lot about food/catering and likes to hustle for door prizes and hole sponsors. We have another person who can get a lot of teams together. He has a large Rolodex and a good relationship with a lot of that Rolodex. I act as the organizer, planner, and also do my share of hustling for teams, prizes and sponsors. I also MC the event the day of.
Step #2 Pick the right course and the best date. If you pick a course and pro that is easy to work with, your scramble will go much smoother. Make sure you spot check your date with big events and other large scrambles. You’ll never steer clear of everything, but the last thing you want is to schedule it the same day as another large organization or on a major holiday weekend. If you’re looking at a weekday versus a weekend, just remember that during the week you’ll draw more business teams and serious golfers. On the weekend you’ll capture more of the family and friends crowd.
Step #3 Focus on 3 main things- Teams, Door Prizes, Hole Sponsors. I have a cookie cutter system now after 5 years. I have flyers for prospecting and each year I can just change the info. We use our website to link up the forms and to collect online registrations. We used to just get a paper form turned in. Either way will do. We have forms to track teams, hole sponsors and lots of forms for instructions on the day of the scramble.
With Teams here are my tips.
- Don’t allow individuals to register as this creates a communication and logistics nightmare.
- Sell 4 somes and collect the money up front, this way the team captain becomes responsible for securing his players and not you. This is especially important because players will drop and things will come up. If you don’t get the money up front; rain, a bad hair day, lack of coffee or a good show on TV could cause a team to not show up.
- You can handicap of flight the event or just have each team for themselves (this is what I prefer but not every organization is the same and some will want to make it fair-life’s not fair though)
With Door Prizes here are my tips.
- Make sure everyone gets one.
- We like to give out gift certificates in $10 increments and restaurants are willing to give them, although golf balls, shirts and other like items work well.
- Make sure they are equitable, don’t have one guy get a foursome to a nice club worth $160 and the next guy gets a mesh hat or umbrella. Since this is not based on performance I think it makes sense to make this equitable.
- Offer a nice sign in exchange for a $50 to $100 donation (this depends on the price tag of your scramble- it’s just math so adjust the numbers based on your ticket price)
- Door prizes are the result of walking into restaurants or businesses giving them information, following up and following up some more. It won’t just happen- trust me.
With Hole Sponsors here are some tips.
- Try and engage businesses in your area. For our scramble we prospect in Middletown.
- Don’t try and pit all kinds of businesses against one another. Use that as a selling point. The first widget company we get will be the last widget company we approach.
- Offer signage (don’t skimp), a link on your website for a period of time and the ability to include sales literature in packets for each golfer. Be creative or encourage them to be.
- Patronize your sponsors- we really believe in and live this one out. That’s probably why we get little resistance from our sponsors each year.
As a side note to these tips, I recommend developing relationships with vendors and using them each year. Sure you can always find someone cheaper, but cheaper doesn’t mean better and it doesn’t mean smoother. I don’t shop our vendors unless they give us a reason too.
Step #4 Rehearse the flow of the event in your mind and in your notes. Visualize people showing up and registering. Visualize people playing and having fun and this will help you to remember the small details that sometimes slip through the cracks.
Hit a home run, and have fun with it by all means.
Babyproofing Your Home
By · CommentsIf you have small children, toddlers and below, then this post should be helpful in your attempt to babyproof your home.
Rather than write a lengthy article, I am going to opt for a list format.
- Get a top of the stairs gate. Evenflo seems to make a good one that we have used. By the way I assume no liability for your decision to purchase any of these items. It’s sad that our society has come to that point but that’s my disclaimer.
- Get a plastic type adjustable gate for the bottom of the stairs. Forgot about that part didn’t you. Yes once they start crawling they will try to head up the steps as well as down.
- Get a baby gate with an extension to block off any large cased openings. Again Evenflo is the one we have used.
- Use a dog gate, baby gate or plastic expandable gate to block regular size doorways.
- Buy lots of plug covers. When you take them out to plug something in make sure you put the plug covers in a place away from the children but close enough to remember to replace them. The plug covers themselves can present a whole new choking hazard. If you choose you can buy large boxes which enclose the entire outlet. We use both options in our home.
- Buy door knob covers. This will keep little hands from opening important doors like the door to the garage or basement. They learn to lock and unlock very early in life.
- Quick hide the cords. This means the lamps have to go too if you want to ever relax that is. If not leave them and you can clean up broken light bulbs weekly. Also try to position furniture so it will hide cords.
- Keep every liquid, tool, and hazardous material out of their reach. That goes without saying.
- Remember to switch babies from small cribs to larger ones and then to toddler beds. For toddlers we like to keep the beds closer to the ground in case they do roll out.
- Babies and Toddlers like phones, remote controls, cords, computers and basically everything they are not supposed to like.
- Watch sitting drinks or liquids next to electronic equipment. It’s bad enough to have accidents which involve bumps, bruises and cleaning carpets. When the iphone goes down with the spill, then it starts to cost you money.
- Find a way to block off your deck or patio using a large plastic play yard type gate. This has worked well for us on many occasions.
- I almost forgot about the cabinets. They make little plastic hinges that will restrict your bathroom or kitchen cabinets from opening all the way. These still work for our oldest two children at 4 and 2 1/2.
Again this is not very polished but since we have 3 small children we get these questions a lot and we have found our lives much most relaxing employing these little tricks.
