Running Your Business from the Beach!

I want to feature interesting tools, and bring you along on my quest to find the best products and services available to make our businesses work like clockwork, so that we can check in from the beach, during a break while hiking, or from across the ocean. I want to be able to work from anywhere, living abroad for months at a time. I want to share the details of my research with you here.

Of course some tools will work for some businesses, but not so well for others. That is okay. You are smart! You can discern what would work for your situation. Please ask questions, leave comments, post suggestions. This should be a journey taken together.

Okay, lets face it, if we are forever unorganized, running around doing the things that are screaming at us the loudest instead of the things that are most important, we can just throw in the towel right now. We will never make it to the beach.

Today I am going to write about David Allen, otherwise known as the Getting Things Done (GTD) guy. Long ago I went to a Franklin Covey Seminar and learned some great "time management" techniques. However, GTD incorporates those things into a complete workflow system. It uses many of the same concepts, but includes simple things that will keep your desk free of clutter, and your head clear.

I am continually trying to use GTD principles in keeping my inbox current and my desk clear through the regular barrage of incoming mail, memos, special offers, papers to fill out, etc.

But the desk is only one component of a larger system, that is designed to keep your email inbox clean (no, there is no reason to store 18,432 emails---just in case you need to refer to that single email again--file or delete), projects and to dos aligned, and you on task.

One interesting concept is the idea of context. It makes no sense to have my shopping list at the office, nor does it make sense to review my household chores at the store. By keeping to-dos split by context, you can review your "at home" list, when you are at home, rather than forgetting those tasks. (I find my wife manages this particular list and ensures that I don't forget---this can also be helpful).

One final thing that I like about the system is that David Allen recognizes this is an art, rather than a science. You can take the principles and use a pen and paper and be very effective. Others feel they need a monitor and keyboard (and phone, etc). The principles transcend technology.

The cool thing is there are various GTD applications using these principles. One that I recently came across, and am trying out is at www.nozbe.com which is a is a to-do / project management/ calendar/ productivity website.

I am most impressed with the flow of writing the tasks (very very easy and fast), to assigning it into a project and a context. It includes a calendar (ical compatible), and allows you to share projects and tasks too.

It isn't perfect, for instance I would like to be able to store my contacts there and link them to my to-dos. But overall, it is a good system.

Check it out. You can start a basic membership for free. Let me know what you think.

Okay, it is 2009. There is no reason I should be retyping new customer information from my website into Peachtree, into Act, and then into the fulfillment center. That is crazy! But integrated systems that are affordable and complete are hard to come by.

I have found some integrated systems, others with "links." What do you use? Here are some quick snapshots of possible systems and my brief thoughts on each:

1. Netsuite: This is one of the best known solutions.

People like Netsuite because it is pretty complete, it is a single system that does it all---email, web, accounting, customer/contact management, etc. If you can get past their annoying sales people (I was annoyed by them, and I have read at least 1-2 comments to this effect---your luck may be better, and maybe they have improved), and you can justify approx. $1,000+ per month, this system may be for you. This is an online SAAS (software as a service) solution.

2. Interprise Suite: This is a new solution that I have been watching for a couple of years now. When it first came out it had mixed reviews, but recent releases have made believers out of many people.

It is also an integrated solution combining contact management, accounting, shipping, e-commerce, email, etc. It's smart client technology allows people to connect to the data via the internet or lan. The cost for 3 users, including ecommerce and support is $5995, but you should budged additional funds for implementation.

An SAAS solution is available, but it is a scaled down version, missing key features, such as user roles, so you better be okay that the warehouse guy has access to financial info.

Next time I will talk about "bootstrap" solutions.