May 21

Mac/iPhone/iPad Business app: Soulver, making calculations easy

8 Operations, 9 Finance, Apple, Business, Mac, Tools, iPhone, software No Comments »

As a entrepreneur and startup business I’m always looking for things to be easier to use, to make getting answers quicker and more efficient. Well, I came across an application today that I think makes a HUGH difference for businesses. It’s called Soulver by Acqualia.

Here’s what the screen looks like, but don’t take my word for it, go to the web site and see for yourself.

Interest Rate Calculations

What better way of getting a math answer without having to know the formula to find it. Where can an entrepreneur use this? How about calculating:

  1. How much you earned last week/month/year?
  2. How much gross margin your product is earning?
  3. How much  taxes you’re paying?
  4. How much income you’re making?
  5. How much you’ll make after all of your expenses are paid?

The list is endless and the potential to save frequently used calculations is a big plus.

It takes those ugly math word problems and makes it easy to work with. Are you mathphobic? Then this is your answer to getting answers without the mathphobia.

Great application for your Mac and the iPhone/iPad.

I give it two thumbs up.

Great going guys.

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Mar 12

“How To Start A Business: Mac Version” Launch Mar 31st!

5 Marketing, 7 Sales, 8 Operations, 9 Finance, Book, Business, Entrepreneur, Small Business, Startups, Thoughts, Tips, Writing 1 Comment »

Buy Now Here:

How to Start a Business: Mac Version

Well, the time has come to launch my book “How To Start A Business: Mac Version” and I’ll be giving a talk at the Colorado Springs Entrepreneur Meetup.com group on March 31st at the East library in Colorado Springs. I’ll be talking about:

  • What started me with my book idea
  • Researching the book
  • Writing the book
  • Producing the book via Print On Demand (POD) publishing
  • What’s in the future.

Hope to see you there, but I’ll have more after March 31st, so stay tuned.

Kevin

Update: 03/29/2010

I’ll still be giving my presentation to the CSE but my book has been delayed because of technical issues for a few more weeks.

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Nov 03

Quickbooks 2010 for Mac released

9 Finance, Business, Mac, Tools, software No Comments »

Now we have Quickbooks 2010 released at $199 for the Mac. Take a look at see how it fits your financial needs. It requires any Mac running Leopard or Snow Leopard.

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Sep 28

1 thing that separates an average entrepreneurs from great ones!

8 Operations, 9 Finance, Business, Entrepreneur, Thoughts, Tips No Comments »

I have had a number of discussions recently with various types of entrepreneurs from graphic artists, videographers, restaurants owners, to construction owners and one thing that keeps coming to mind is what separates the good entrepreneurs from the great ones. But before I get to the issue at hand, let me tell you a story.

I was at one point very interested in Linux as my operating system of choice in the late 90′s. Why? Because the Mac OS was going to be based on FreeBSD UNIX based on it’s historical roots (you have got to see the lineage of UNIX). I wanted to learn the ins and outs of how it worked, getting “under the hood” of the OS. Going from the original Mac to Linux was like going from grade school math to calculus! Man, did I pull my hair out learning the command line interface (CLI). But that learning experience, as difficult as it was, made a profound affect on my understanding what a computer COULD do. I also began to understand Open Source Software (OSS) as it pertains to it’s development. Fast forward a few years while using Linux. I was talking with a photographer and I had mentioned that GIMP was a good OSS solution to try and it was FREE for his Windows system. He asked some more questions and as he was leaving he stated “If GIMP has one tool that PhotoShop does NOT have and it’s free then I’ll be getting it for sure!”

Fast forward to today. Talking with entrepreneurs I have stated that my book covers business essential steps and using the Mac to start a business. Because I was writing for a Mac nearly all have dismissed my book because I’m writing for a Mac, but only a few stated “Are you going to write one for Windows” and only one asked the most important question of all.

Can you tell the difference? Can you see where this is going? Can you see the progression?

If you have seen Dan Pink during his TED presentation he discusses the concept.

It’s about viewpoint and the degrees of viewpoint, focused versus broad.

I’ve bolded the hints, do you see it now?

So here’s the question:

What can I learn from your book?

That’s the difference maker between average entrepreneurs and good ones, the good ones learn from anywhere how to improve their business and apply it if it works and works for them!

But what about great entrepreneurs?

The difference between good and great entrepreneurs is the cost factor!

A good entrepreneur sees only a cost, a great entrepreneur sees the Return On Investment (ROI) of what they are purchasing.

Great entrepreneurs see the investment value of what they are buying, not the cost. A good entrepreneur sees a $20 cost, a geat entrepreneur sees a $40 investment if it saves/earns him $200!

So, which are you?

If you think this is wrong, here’s further info to back my comment up.

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Sep 12

Quicken for Mac Blog Update September 2009

9 Finance, Business, Entrepreneur, Mac, Tools, software No Comments »

As with all Macs, Intuit’s Quicken for the Mac is a mainstay in the software side. Here’s an update to where Intuit is in updating this software.

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Sep 02

Pre-selected color themes for newsletters, web sites, or Numbers charts.

5 Marketing, 7 Sales, 8 Operations, 9 Finance, Business, Tips, Tools No Comments »

As one that is NOT a graphic artist I could learn about colors but it’s a matter of how much time do I have to learn that among all of the other stuff I have to learn. One of the “kewl tewls” that I have found that accelerates this process is Adobe’s Kuler tool, web site, and widget for the Mac. What this tool does is give you listings of five coordinated colors in a theme that so you can use these colors in your newsletter, web site, blog, or your charts in Pages or Numbers.

Check it out, great way of getting new ideas to color your documents and communications with your ideal customers.

If you want, add to their collection.

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Aug 21

Mac software for Realtors

5 Marketing, 7 Sales, 8 Operations, 9 Finance, Business, Mac, Tools, software No Comments »

Here is a listing of Real Estate software to run on your Mac:

  • Agent Business Builder by Powermate – Powerful real estate CRM software
  • Real Estate Ad Writing Software by Powermate – Now that all your ads are up on Realtor.com, and the public is viewing your MLS descriptions, you can write powerful descriptions and ads that sell
  • REALedger by Powermate – REALedger is a comprehensive set of tools made to manage a real estate brokerage.  Including Listings, Sales Tracking, Agent Tracking, Banking and Trust Account Management and standard accounting features such as Accounts Payable, Payroll, Budgeting, and General Ledger.
  • PhoneValet – Let PhoneValet announce, answer, transfer & record calls, keep a searchable call history, and dial quickly and efficiently. It’s a powerful telephony suite that does all this and more, simply, intuitively and elegantly — in the spirit of the Macintosh.
  • HELIOSnet – an Internet-based, sales / acquisitions and marketing management Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) that supports the international, dynamic collaboration among real estate professionals (property developers, agents / brokers, real estate investment companies) across organizational, geographical and language barriers.
  • HUD-1 Forms – forms for HUD properties.
  • Markler – document storage and full transaction management.
  • ZIPForm – online real estate forms.

As more become available, they’ll be posted.

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Jul 13

Quicken for the Mac delayed until 2010….

9 Finance, Business, Mac, software No Comments »

or so this article states. There are probably a number of reasons for it, namely waiting for Snow Leopard to come out in September and then giving Apple a number of months to clean up the new release of bugs and security patches. Normally smaller projects come out as the same time as a major release, but Intuit probably has other issue surrounding the release, hence the delay.

Well, keep using 2007 Quicken or look for something else, such as MoneyWorks or Liquid Ledger. Both can handle startup accounting if you need it.

Jun 29

Automating your business processes on a Mac

5 Marketing, 7 Sales, 8 Operations, 9 Finance, Business, Entrepreneur, Mac, Planning, Tips, Tools, software No Comments »

You know that entrepreneurs are busy people, they work hard and they work smart, but did you know that the Mac can work smart for you? You can automate any and all of what you do on your Mac to make yourself more productive.

Understand there are various levels of automating tasks on a Mac, from the simple to the complex and depending on the level of your needs will require more technical knowledge the more complex it gets. So how can you make your life easier? Here’s the ideas to make sure you get more done in less time:

  • Templates – creating templates of your regular and repeatable documents speeds up what you do by not having to recreate from scratch something that works for you. You can download a number of SCORE’s business templates from their web site, for example.
  • Automator – using Apple’s Automator you can make actionable tasks that the computer does to make various apps do things for you.
  • Applescript – with Apple’s scripting language you can control, and communicate among, applications, databases, networks, Web services, and even the operating system itself.
  • Scripting – for those understand the Mac’s UNIX heritage, are programmers, or are an expert at PHP, PERL, or Ruby On Rails you can write scripts to automate more detailed tasks. Normally this is used for larger amounts of data between databases and the like. Check with a programmer to see if you need this level of scripting. Not every business nail needs a hammer, a tack hammer or a sledge hammer may be needed depending on the task at hand.

So, there you have the basics of getting more productive on your Mac. The one thing that you need to know that you automate only those things that you repeat a lot such as something daily or that takes a lot of time and you have to do it over and over again. Automating things requires a few things before it is applicable to your task:

  • Repeatable –  your task should be something that you are constantly doing the same thing over and over, not something that is a one time thing, unless it is  a large project.
  • Frequent – the frequency of the task such as a number of times during the day
  • Accurate and consistent – you need accuracy in what you are doing.
  • Large project – a large project that needs to be accurate and fast, such as doing a monthly column or your finance books each month that covers a lot of data.
  • Fast – automating your typing ensure that it is done correctly and accurately each time you tell your Mac to do the task.

So, what do you need to automate?

Jun 05

Motivating others: “Caught Ya” or “Gotcha”? Who would you work for?

5 Marketing, 7 Sales, 8 Operations, 9 Finance, Business, Consultant, Entrepreneur, Small Business, Startups, Thoughts, Tips No Comments »

I’ve been reading how people, leaders, managers, parents and others motivate others to get what they need from those that they work with and there are two focuses that each entrepreneur needs to consider while embarking on building their business. Do you offer the “carrot or stick” motivation. How do they come across?

There are two areas that are most prominent in management.

  • “Gotcha” – is the negative and here the emphasis is on finding the person doing something wrong, and it can be done wrong procedurally, ethically, or legally. This is the stick point. Here you come across as “I found out you did something wrong and I’ve caught you at it.” This is also a position or title approach to interacting with others.
  • “Caught Ya” – is the positive and the emphasis is on catching someone doing something right, preferably right at the moment they have done it. This is the carrot point. It comes across as “I caught you doing something right so I’m going to tell what you did right.” This is also an encouraging motivation for others.

Having standards for work as well as for your customers are very important in today’s working environments, but it is HOW you get others motivated to do what you need to do that is important.

A key point here is, which one, “Gotcha” or “Caught Ya” would you work for? And how do you come across? Or, in other words…

Would you work for you?

Would you want to go to work for the way you treat others?

Good leaders recognize this and as act accordingly. Great leaders learn how to do it better all of the time.

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