Filemaker’s Bento software for the Mac is meant to be a database management program for users who aren’t much interested in keeping databases. At least, as someone who shudders at the very term, that’s how I see it. The program receives its third major iterative upgrade today, and there’s a lot for web workers to get excited about with this latest version.
I haven’t used Bento since it was first released, so a lot is new to me. For the purposes of this review, I won’t be detailing what’s changed so much as what strikes me as most useful about the program from a web working angle, since I imagine many of you will be new to the software as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Lately, I’ve gotten a lot of my clients contacting me through Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites. I got a direct message from one of my clients, saying that she has a new project she wants to start on. I received a LinkedIn message from a prospective client interested in working with me. It isn’t just clients, either. I sent a direct message to a designer I’m working with in order to get a quote for a project myself.
But are there any problems that can arise from conducting business conversations through social media? Read the rest of this entry »
One of the more exciting services I’ve had the chance to use over the past year is Gist, a personal relationship manager / news aggregator. In my review from last October, I was impressed with how well it mixes your inbox with the web to compile useful information about your contacts.
As Jennifer reports over on GigaOM, after approximately a year of limited closed beta they’ve decided to open up the gates and make the Gist beta public. The folks at Gist had taken a bit of a different take for their beta. A carefully vetted group of participants were given access over an extended period of time, along with direct access to support and incredibly responsive feedback channels. As a result, Gist has improved substantially since our last look and is a highly recommended tool to add to your business arsenal.
Read the rest of this entry »
Having easy ways to share information with your teammates is absolutely crucial when your office is wherever you happen to set down your laptop. Various tools have emerged that let you share a dashboard of sorts with your teammates. Many of them have the ability to share files, to provide instant updates on what you’re doing, to assign tasks to team members — but one feature that I’ve been looking for just hasn’t made it into many of the tools I’ve tried. Bantam Live has made good on that missing element: the ability to manage shared contacts. Read the rest of this entry »
Working on the web is great, but you miss out on some great business-building opportunities if you’re far removed from the majority of your clients. Business lunches and dinners are a fantastic tool for greasing the wheels of profitable partnerships, but if you’re in Taipei and your client is in Reno, it can be a little hard to coordinate. What web workers should not do, and what we too often do, is just shrug our shoulders and leave it at that.
Even across great distances, we can still schmooze and butter up with the best of ‘em. The key is good CRM, which applies regardless of distance. Here are some examples of how you might go about bridging that geographic gap to form a solid client-contractor bond. Read the rest of this entry »
Though CRM, project management and invoicing are often separate applications, more companies are producing software that does more than one of these tasks by combining them into one package. Severa is web-based software that provides you with an all-in-one software solution for managing your business.
The price is unbeatable for lone freelancers and business owners, with a $0 price tag. If you work with a team that will need access to the software, it’ll cost 30 euros ($40) per user per month, with the first user free. Should the out-of-the-box package not have everything you need, Severa has add-ons available for a fee. Read the rest of this entry »
I was recently shocked to discover that a friend of mine who is quite a few years (and jobs) into a successful career in engineering sales not only doesn’t use any kind of customer relationship management (CRM) system or application, but actually had never heard the term! When I described what a CRM system does, he said, “You mean like the padfolio where I write stuff down and keep business cards?”
It’s hard to say he’s going about things the wrong way, because he’s never been fired, but I strongly believe that some kind of CRM software would help him a lot in his work, and single him out as a progressively-minded individual with his employers. There are so many easy-to-use, free options out there, you’d have trouble not finding a good solution. Recently, I tried out Funnela, and I think it has something to offer people like my friend.
Like Relenta, another CRM app I recently covered, Funnela makes simplicity its main selling point. It offers the basics, and little else, which is great for a beginner. There are some minor language issues, since Funnela comes from a Polish developer, but these minor quirks don’t interfere with the app’s usability. Read the rest of this entry »
Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions vary, but for the most part they help businesses manage sales leads, accounts, campaigns, forecasts and activities. Most CRM packages tend to be too heavyweight for the sole proprietor, however. They cost a bundle and contain features that most web workers don’t need. Zoho has a relatively simple CRM solution that’s free for up to three users. Although it takes some figuring out, it’s a good option to consider for web workers.
Zoho CRM comes with all the basic CRM functions you’d expect: You can manage campaigns and leads, view reports and dashboards and manage inventory.
Getting Started
It’s best to start at CRM.zoho.com, even if you have an existing Zoho account. At first glance, the application looks overwhelming, especially if it’s the first CRM package you’ve used. Zoho has a useful Getting Started video that gives you a quick overview of the application and makes it feel less threatening.
Everything you need to access appears in the tabs at the top of the screen and the links below them. You can customize most of the reports and dashboards as well as the settings for every tab. Read the rest of this entry »
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
