Julian101.comThoughts, Lessons, Business Tips from ProWorkflow.com’s Serial Entrepreneur - Project Management Software

The other day, I was thinking about heading to Church on the weekend, and knew there would be lots of people to catch up with. One of my pet dislikes is having to re-ramble a canned pre-amble… ie: saying “How are you… I’ve been up to ???” over and over to different people, friends or new.

We keep a personal family blog which has a good summary of all the cool activities the family gets up to… There’s many hundreds of photos online… And a picture is worth a thousand words, so I thought “How can I give people quick access to the blog, so they can see what we’re up to and what we’re about”.

Easy!

Step 1. Save the blog locally

Change the blog settings to show all posts in one view. Save the entire blog as a “WebPage Complete” from Internet Explorer’s file menu. This will save the entire blog as HTML and images etc.

Step 2. Copy the images to the iPhone

Then view the file folder, sort by ‘File Type’ and you’ll see all the images. Simply copy these photos to the iPhone using the iTunes software. Because they’re all blog photos, they’re already the right size to copy, and when iTunes optimizes the photos for the iPhone, it’s really quick!

Step 3. Sync the iPhone!

Then view the photos on the iPhone in the Photo Viewer. Awesome! So anyway, I went along, saw some people to catch up with and when they said the inevitable “What have you been up to?” I simply gave them the iPhone and said “Have a flick of these photos!” Between the groovy iPhone and looking at the photos, they were so engrossed, that I was able to slip away for a piece of cake and cuppa while the iPhone filled them in. It even drew a crowd!

Not sure if I’d call this a life hack or not, but it’s definitely a good conversation optimizer! A bit geeky, but I’m a bit of a geek…

Pretty amazing though that you can summarize a few years of your life with someone in a few seconds of photo flicking! Anyway, here’s a vid of the final ‘Ex Blog - Life Photostream’.

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com
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Just tried logging into Twitter - http://twitter.com/login  using Internet Explorer to post about something only to find after logging in, I was presented with a nice bit of XML. Reading through I noticed they use Amazon’s S3 service. In light of the issues with Amazon S3 in recent days, I wonder if it’s a Twitter issue or Amazon S3 issue? Who knows? - It’s just a pain…

Still doing it now after clearing cache, rebooting browser etc - so that’s about 15 mins… I think that Twitter is interesting, but I hope they can solve all these ongoing issues, otherwise they’ll never climb out of the ‘lack of reliability’ hole they’ve dug themselves.

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com
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I found this over on the website www.startup.co.nz. It was very inspirational! The HP garage has long been recognised as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. The guys at Bleeding Edge TV were lucky enough to get a guided tour of the garage recently along with the “Shed” the Hewlett used to live in.  For all you Start-UP entrepreneurs currently working out of your spare bedroom or garage this video should provide you with all the encouragement you need.

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Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com
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About a year ago, I did a series of YouTube vids for a laugh and also to share some advice I’ve learnt along the way developing www.proworkflow.com . Although I’m a year older now, and a bit more wise and weathered, this advice still stands. Please excuse the poor quality of the sound - I was experimenting with a camera and got some lag.  But I bet Twitter wished they’d listened to the first vid!

Here’s the series! Have a watch and tell your friends!

Business Tip - Don’t scale up before testing!
Learn why you shouldn’t scale up you web business before testing your internal systems and processes.

Business Tip - Don’t Make a Startup!
Learn why you need to make a ‘Started-up’ rather than a startup.

Business Tip - Be Good Don’t Suck!
Learn how and why you need to be good at what you do and how not to suck.

Business Tip - Low Inertia Web Businesses!
Learn why people love to hear a physical voice behind an internet company or web based business.

Business Tip - People love to hear a voice!
Learn why people love to hear a physical voice behind an internet company or web based business.

Business Tip - Fish in the Demo Pool!
Learn how and why you should be fishing in the demo pool of your web based business.

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com
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One of our latest ProWorkflow customers is an effects shop in San Francisco called “Ordinary Kids”. Check them out over at their website - http://www.ordinarykids.com/. I have to say, this effects reel is absolutely brilliant - they’ll go far!

I think it’s fantastic to see some creativity. This vid should go viral and will probably do more to spread the word for them than a normal effects reel. Great stuff!

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com

I’ve just seen some visuals (or concepts) of the latest Windows7 design. This look like a copy of Apple’s mixed with navigation systems off the 10yr old SGI 3d apps I used to use… It’s nice to look at for a few minutes, but operationally on a day to day basis? Not so sure - too cluttered any inconsistent.

Also, if we’re completely honest it looks a bit thrown together by a bunch of people from the Web2 ‘bug button’ community. It’s just a bit of a dog’s breakfast. Read what this is below:

Meaning: Dogs Breakfast
An unappealing mixture of many things… a hodgepodge… a
disorganized mess… but probably still usable (or consumable in the
case of food.) From the idea that a dog will eat anything and feeding
it a mixture of whatever is on hand. (Unappealing because only the dog
finds its breakfast appealing… if you see or smell the dog food in
the morning, as you’re feeding the dog, it may well turn your stomach.)

Man oh man! You would think that each new release should achieve three main goals.
1. Add much needed functionality
2. Fix or remove broken functionality
and
3. Make the operating system easier to use… Here are my initial thoughts on this.

1. Add much NEEDED functionality

There’s a big difference between NEEDS and WANTS (Ask ya parents). Looks like they’ve just said ‘Yes!’ to every feature asked for and added even more anyway. All the extra features and functionality cost the users as I bet this level of GUI and feature set will require a higher hardware cost at the consumer end. ie: “Get Windows7! (but add another gig of ram!)”

2. Fix or remove BROKEN functionality

Hopefully they have fixed the plethora of issues in XP and Vista, but this looks like a full code upgrade? Does that mean we’ll be ‘Beta Testing’ yet another power-hungry MS operating system? Why can’t they ‘Refine’ their systems rather than continually ‘redevelop/redesign’ them? All that does is mean that Microsoft are always on the back foot from a stability perspective.

3. Make the operating system EASIER to use

Firstly, these screens are a work of art to look at, just like a forged Apple/SGI/Rembrandt. Trouble is through that an operating system should not be a ‘Work of Art’ but rather an ‘Operating System’. ie: A system to operate in on a daily basis. A decent OS should be elegant, but take a back seat to the real work being done in other applications.

An OS doesn’t earn you money, Excel, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Coldfusion etc do. The OS should be a platform that your working apps sit on. It should be secondary. This is where Microsoft don’t get it. I don’t want the OS interrupting my daily work.

just want it to work! When I’m on a deadline with a large client project I can just imagine the OS screaming “Look at me! Love me! Look at my widgets and dials!” and I’d say back “Bugger off - I’m working! and you’re just a lowly OS!”

The reality is that nearly all the apps I use daily worked fine back on XP and that was really stable! So Why do we actually need such a major rehash! All it does is make people have to learn a new way of working that will change again the next time Apple turns a corner and MS follow. I know MS want to hang around with the cool crowd (Apple) but they should drag their users around the block with them. We just want a smooth ride.

Anyway. Any system my grandmother couldn’t use is too complex. My grandmother couldn’t use this (and could use XP) so enough said. Throw your comments in the pot below - keen to hear people’s thoughts on these screenshots…

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com

This is India. It’s where many companies send their outsourced support services and call centres for a more ‘efficient’ operation… Hmm… There’s some irony in Telco’s like Telstra etc sending support to India!

I know that the actual support centers are a little flasher, and they probably use cable ties to tidy things up a bit. But thought this was a laugh for the week after reading through the NZ ‘Digital Strategy’ paper. It says we need Fibre connectivity to compete on the world stage, but India are competing nicely and they’re doing it with spaghetti comms and tin cans tied together with string. Just give us reliability in NZ!

Disclaimer: Some people think I’m serious about this (been contacted by some Indians from 2x telcos :-)  ). for those with no funnybone, this is a lighthearted humorous post. Don’t take it seriously. And yes I’d gladly poke fun at my own country/govt if the opportunity arose - we in NZ have plenty to laugh about! We should all learn to laugh at ourselves more.  ;-)

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com
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Ben Kepes just posted his thoughts on the XERO end of year results on his Diversity blog. Go have a read as it’s an interesting business venture that many are following with interest:

http://diversity.net.nz/xero-year-end-results/2008/05/14/

Here’s my comment on the blog post.

What it amounts to I believe is that XERO is like no other business in the sense that, remarkable product or otherwise, to build a sustainable SaaS business just takes time and hard work (and watching the balance sheet).

SaaS businesses in the early years always looks ‘on the surface’ like they’re finding sales hard as the revenue always appears less than people expect. This is because the very nature of SaaS is many, small payments, monthly. It takes time to build the revenue, and for quite a while it seems like not a lot is happening - but then the revenue picks up. And SaaS revenue is like gold!

When you have thousands of committed customers paying monthly, it takes a major event to dent the revenue stream. SaaS becomes a solid revenue model, compared to traditional software service companies that may have only a few high paying customers. ie: When they lose a customer - there goes 250k and some jobs.

I do wish XERO all the best, and New Zealand’s tech community is watching with great interest, but what we all want to see is XERO get to the positive cash flow - covering overheads, before the cash in bank runs out. A XERO success is good for everyone…

So yes, looks like they need to ramp up fast, and they’ll know that and be working towards it… But my comment for the day (We’re in SaaS too) is don’t judge a SaaS businesses potential by it’s first years results. it’s the nature of this type of revenue stream to be low initially, then (if they have a winner product/model) it grow exponentially.

What we don’t want to see is linear growth. These business models should grow exponentially.

As a side note. It takes some balls to run a company with public financials. I wonder what comments we’d all make if we could publicly scrutinize each others business accounts?

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com
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This is my beloved Dell XPS M1330 laptop in pieces. Nearly makes me cry! ha ha… it had an overheating issue on the GPU, So needed a new motherboard. (Tip: Ask for the A00 model, not A01 or A04). This is now a known issue on this model but Dell have an easy fix.

No problem though!I have a 2yr on-site warranty. Dell are FANTASTIC for on-site warranty repairs. They sent a guy and the new part out and it was all fixed within 3 days of calling them. The problem seems to stem from an overheating issue where the vents are on the bottom and are easily blocked in on your lap, or carpet etc. You shouldn’t have the issue if the notebook is always on a hard surface. In addition, I’ve purchased the larger battery as it lifts the back of the case up a bit - better airflow!

So yes, it was a critical operation, but my powerhouse pulled through with flying colors! I’d still recommend this model as one of the best I’ve known overall.

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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com
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I’ve just read an interesting article over at http://diversity.net.nz/ about Telcos and SaaS business that caught my attention. It’s an area of interest globally currently; finding ways for SaaS business (powerful software) to partner with Telcos (powerful infrastructure). But it does pose some questions…

Here’s the article:
http://diversity.net.nz/telcos-and-saas-a-happy-fit/2008/05/05/

and my thoughts on it are below…

I’ll be interesting to see how the Telcos approach the SaaS model. Contrary to popular belief, SaaS is hard work and many players don’t have large margins - especially early stage SaaS players as they’re spending heavy in Marketing/Dev to get established. Even SalesForce is still working on improving margins…

So how can a Telco partner with a tight margined SaaS player? It’ll be interesting to watch these Telco/SaaS M&A&P’s over time.

Google/Salesforce is a good example of two different models coming together (Sales model vs Free model) - but would a similar deal be struck with a Telco?

Unsure… They could be a technology partner sure, but could they be a software partner? if sales or support (or custom dev) were moved from the SaaS business to the Telco, would the service to customers be lessened? I don’t know if the Telco would have the same product knowledge/passion/experience to deliver equivalent service to a SaaS’s current service?

I mean, you can’t have a Telco support or sales worker working on Internet plans, or dial up packages, then switching to CRM product support…

The Telco would need a specialist team for a ’service’ partnership to be feasible. and then if they have a specialist team, what becomes of the SaaS company’s role? Does it revert to a simple R&D focus? If so, then there’s an issue that R&D & dev teams are removed from customer front end, so the product development angle suffers…

Telco and SaaS business in partnership. Whilst I like the idea of marketing a solution down the Telco’s channel, there are some questions:

1. What’s in it for the Telco (Because the revenue won’t cover the cost for them)
2. What’s in it for the SaaS (Because service and Product dev may suffer)

Just my thoughts. I’m open to ideas on this.

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Anyone is welcome to republish this article as free online content, provided that the paragraph below is included in the full form as shown.
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About the author:
Julian Stone, CEO – Project Management Software visionary for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com
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