FreshBooks review (and coupons)

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FreshBooks (claim your $50 FreshBooks coupon here) is known for weird titles.Corey Reid, for instance, is Chief Cat Herder. That's Director of R&D Talent for us mere mortals. Saul Colt is Head of Magic. Perhaps you'd prefer Marketing and Customer Experience Design. And don't even ask me what Freshbooks CEO goes by.

So perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that FreshBooks isn't really about bookkeeping. Instead, FreshBooks is really one of the first timekeeping and invoicing software turned SaaS (it'll be interesting how FreshBooks reacts to the recent onslaught of free CRM with invocing).

FreshBook is now used by over 5 million users and known for it's "braindead simple" approach. One of the reasons for that that one year after being launched in 2003, it had only 6 clients. That's six. And 24 months into operation, it had only 10. This is how Mike McDerment recalls these days:

"So we tried a PR firm and I like to say that I got my Masters in Communication through that process because we basically…we didn’t get any awareness built out of it whatsoever. And so we shelved that and we went back to putting our heads down and spending our money on direct response type marketing, like being in an email newsletter or pay-per-click. You know, started trying to learn a little more about who was being successful marketing themselves online. So we started learning more about blogging and that kind of thing."

Two things saved FreshBooks - first they changed their pricing. Not once, not twice but actually four times, and every with every time they'd get more and more paying customers. Second, FreshBook decided to become a 'human' company, meaning that if you call their number, you actually get a human being on the other end. And if you have a question, you can an answer. And corporatespeak was banned at the company as well.

Becoming a user centric company transformed FreshBooks in a number of ways. Feeback was collected not as a formality, but in order to stay ahead of competition, so it's no wonder that FreshBooks one of the first to offer iPad app, when others weren't so sure about that anyone would use mobile apps for their invoices. Addition of expense tracking and cloud accouting significantly expanded FreshBooks use beyond its core market of small business owners, lawyers, designers and other professionals (my girlfriend uses iOS mobile app to track her daily expenses). With WaveAccounting and Bitrix24, FreshBooks makes the Holy Trinity of SMB and Productivity 2.0 tools that every business owner should be aware about. Oh, and if you want to try FreshBooks, here's your $50 coupon)

[Via - MadConomist.Com]

Social intranet project management

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Two CRMs That Are Changing The Game

Cool New Startups - Bitrix24.Com

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Bitrix24.com is a new SaaS (software as a service) cloud based social intranet platform that makes corporate intranet easily available to smaller companies. It does not take any time to deploy (everything is already installed and set up) and doesn’t cost anything if it’s used by companies with fewer than 12 employees.

At first, Bitrix24 looks like corporate Facebook – there is the wall or activity stream where different employees engage in discussions and vote by ‘liking’ ideas, documents or workgroups. There are also instant messenger and photogallery. This is where the similarities end.



The first important Bitrix24 module is free CRM (customer relationship module) that comes with a database for clients and prospects that are easily sorted by events (phone call or meeting, for instance). Next comes the sales funnel that divides clients into easy-to-work-with groups - new prospects, first contact, requested quote, scheduled meeting, negotiations and sales, for example (the actual setup is customizable). Bitrix24 free CRM is designed for easy interactions with clients. For example, you can send an e-mail to a certain group as well as import/export any client information. You can also set Bitrix24 to automatically import ‘leads’ that are generated by any site into the CRM.



The second important module is document management. This module allows storing, editing and collaborating on various documents with co-workers. The documents can be made private (visible to document owner only) or shared. Bitrix24 also tracks version history, making it possible to revert to older version of the document, if necessary. Importantly, you can map a single document library or all of your document libraries to a network drive on your local machine literally in 2 clicks using WebDav. That means that whether you use Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, you will be able to see the documents in the intranet locally through your file manager.



Third and fourth are planning and task/project management modules. These include calendar, work reports, absentee charts, meeting scheduler, personalized to-do lists, time management tools, even Gantt charts for easy visualization of progress made on specific projects. The employees are split into workgroups and access rights are assigned to each individual. For example, the department head may see work reports of his subordinates only, while vice-president is able to view every work report made by any employee.



Because companies tend to outsource or hire outside contractors/freelancer Bitrix24 allows one to easily integrate those into workgroups and give non-employees access to corporate intranet with restricted rights specified as necessary. Also, for higher mobility, Bitrix24.com can be easily accessed via iPhone, iPad or any Android based device.

As mentioned, Bitrix24.com is free when used by 12 employees or fewer. Bitrix24.com can be used by unlimited numbers of workers for $99 a month. Unlike other similar services, Bitrix24.com doesn’t charge extra for each additional employee, since it is cloud based and ample storage is available. The premium version is priced at $199 a month.

[Via - MadConomist.com]

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How To Make Money Identifying Beetles And Butterflies

http://determix.com/

Before the rise of the Digital age, research and forensic scientists, biologists, and botanists, painstakingly identified each and every living organism by searching their various ranks in the Nomenclature Code rule book. Using advanced technology however, has made it possible to simplify these steps in just a couple of clicks on the computer. Determix has created Lysandra Online, an internet-based, biological database that classifies all organisms using interactive catalogues and identification guides. Everything is basically there; and unlike a trip to the library, it wouldn't take a day to find a strange organism's Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species classification—all in one sitting.

This is good news to scientists all over the world. Lysandra Online is co-authored by leading specialists in the fields of zoology and biological sciences; and it uses complex algorithms to search for an organism's specific hierarchies. It makes things even easier by adding illustrated catalogues, handy navigation, and print output in its features. And here's the best part: it can organize random search lists from the general catalogue and even create mini-presentations. Some of its published works include beetles and butterfly classification, butterfly identifcation database, and all that can be easily accessed via website.

The best part, however, is that it’s free. All its database and facilities are available after installation, and some of its demo databases don't even need registration. Today, it is used as an accurate guide to biological classification, and Determix has now released a commercial version of its database that contains completely illustrated tools, maps, and pictures for better identification.

[Via - MadConomist.com]

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Game Truck Success Story

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http://gametruckparty.com/

It was 2006 and Scott Novis was frustrated with the pizza arcade experience at his son's 4th birthday party. Children were running around unmonitored, and the games were boring and static; most of the kids had better games and graphics on their home game boxes than what was being offered at the party. So not long afterward, he went home and, in his garage, retrofitted a truck with gaming consoles, flat-screen monitors and cool interiors, creating the first GameTruck portable gaming party. He threw a birthday party for a friend and, soon, GameTruck was a thriving weekend business. Since then, the company has grown to nearly $2 million in revenue, and is thriving with nearly 40 trucks in 20 locations across the country and 12 employees in its home office. The company also offers franchise opportunities.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Entrepreneur.Com]

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