Roman's ramblings about life and marketing » Managing Technology

Running a media company – productivity tools we use:

Roman — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:31:48 +0000

A couple of my friends have asked how we manage time inside our company and how I personally manage my time. To be a successful web entrepreneur managing your time wisely is not an option–it is a prerequisite. You better have a good system in place for managing your remote departments, be social on- and off-line and still have time for strategic development. What I’ve learned through trying many different set-ups is whatever system you use, make sure it provides value and is easy for everyone to use. There is no point in complicated software if nobody checks it or updates it regularly.

My own system is heavily influenced by Getting Things Done and my occasional readings of Lifehacker.com.

Principles I find helpful:

You must have a trusted Inbox where you can upload everything from your mind You must commit to make this Inbox comprehensive and check it every single day I follow Inbox Zero philosophy: Move quickly without rushing

Process:

My process pretty much follows the GTD philosophy:

Every morning I start by looking at my Gmail. I am looking first at messages that were not sorted automatically through my filters. I then decide if it is trash, resource, or an actionable item and add an appropriate Gmail label to it.
I then look through the actionable items and sort them into: scheduled events – schedualed in Google Calendar, context to-do – logged in right away to RMT or full-on projects that need to be logged into Zoho Projects.
I then look at my “Waiting” label in Gmail and see if I need to follow up with anybody.
I go throught the list of open projects in Zoho and see what tasks are pending.
I then brainstorm on what else needs to be done.
After that process, which takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, the list of tasks is born and logged into Remember the Milk to be synced with my Blackberry that by now has the list of all my apointments, new contacts and urgent task.

Tools:

Microsoft Outlook :

I use it as a Desktop Calendar that gives me reminders when I am at my computer. I also use it as a backup to all of the emails in Gmail.

Google Sync:

I have Sync installed on my desktop, laptop, and Blackberry. This allows me to wirelessly sync all my appointments and contacts between all the devices, so if I put something in my Blackberry it will show up on my Google Calendar and on desktop in my Outlook. For a person that works from any location this service is invaluable. My only pet peeve with it is that it will only sync to your primary calendar.

Google Calendar:

I use this for many reasons: 1) A hub between desktop and Blackberry 2)Ability to quickly share my events with employees and family 3) Ability to see my schedule from anywhere with internet access

Google Docs:

There is a great reason to use Google Docs – portability. There are thousands of ways to sync your documents, but I’ve found that Docs are the easiest way to have your documents wherever you are. With Docs being constantly improved I rarely use Office these days at all. Another reason to use Docs is collobaration. When working with more than 1 person on the same Doc this feature becomes a life saver as you don’t email document back and forth.

Gmail:

For me this is the best email management tools. Portability, labels and filters make it the best tool for me. If for some reason you are new to Gmail read how to become a Gmail Ninja and use filters and labels effectively.

Remember the Milk:

Simply the best task management tool I have ever used. It is very easy to capture and organize your tasks with this tool. You can access your task from anywhere with internet access and my favorite feature is it syncs with my Blackberry. I use it as a gadget to see my Gmail window. Too bad there is no official product that syncs RTM with Outlook.

Blackberry Bold:

After many trials I still prefer Blackberry over Iphone ( I didn’t check the 3GS version yet). I can write a long post on why I still prefer Blackberry, but I won’t. In summary–it is fast and has a keyboard. Due to the awesome aforementioned sync tools my Blackberry contains all of my appointments, tasks, emails and I don’t have to even plug in any cables. Applications I use: Google Maps, TwitterBerry, WeatherEye, Gmail, Gtalk, Fleshlight, FlyCast and of course Facebook

Zoho Projects:

This is where the management of the company happens. While Zoho projects are not the most sophisticated project management system, it is easy to use, economical, and people actually use it. Not only do we schedule all the milestones, deliverables, and documents related to a project, but we also use the forums for communication. That way we eliminate missed emails, and all the communication related to the project is within reach

Pros and Cons
Things I love about my set-up is comprehensivness and portability. The most annoying thing about my set-up is that it has three Inboxes: Gmail, Zoho and RTM. Hence the reason I keep on hoping that RTM, Zoho and Google will include task synching in their products.

I might write a follow up to this post on how I plan and schedule projects in Zoho Projects.

Getting quotes for my Toronto website on Elance.com

Roman — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:25:48 +0000

Even though some of my friends thing I am into technology I am really not that tech savvy and for sure I am not a web designer. That is why the decision of outsourcing the web site creation and maintenance was obvious. My believe is that a business can outsource everything except strategic functions – basis for the competitive advantage. In my business competitive advantage is created through creation if unique content, marketing of the media channel to bring visitors and sales relationships with advertisers. I strongly believe that everything else can be and should be outsourced for lean operations.

I am writing a detailed business plan these days (if you still didn’t participate in the survey I sent you – do it right now, that is a part of marketing research) and needed to understand how much the website will costs. I also wanted a break down of how much each feature I want takes time and costs associated with it. My plan is not only to outsource web site development but also to offshore it. I have connections in both Russia and Israel where the website can be created on the same level as in North America, but for the fraction of the cost.

My first step in getting quotes is to use Elance.com it is a great tool to upload some of the simple projects to someone else. I used it to find a designer Steve Sotto to build a logo for the website.

After posting a brief description of what I need “Entertainment Portal based on CMS” I received more that 40 private messages, some firms even quoted me on a project right away varying from $1000 to $20,000. The experience made me write this post dedicated to anyone who sends quotes or proposals for web development and pretty much for any business. I have to provide a disclaimer that I think in my professional life I provided a top notch service to my clients and that is why when I am a buyer I am very picky. So here are my rules:

Don’t quote on a project till you know the scope of it - Everyone who quoted without even looking into what I need and furthermore wanted to push me into making a purchase decision were eliminated from the list. It is simple as that: if you don’t have time to make sure you have what I need – I am not willing to work with you daily for 2-3 month in creating my baby.
Remember who you quoted – a guy wrote me an email that he would be “delighted to go over the project details” with me over the phone and that I can call at my earliest convenience. I did call after 15 minutes of receiving his email. To my surprise he didn’t know who I was or what project I am talking about. It took him five minutes to figure it. I even felt that he unhappy that I interrupted whatever he was doing with my phone call. Gone.
Read what client wrote -after talking to a couple of firms I understood that I have to write a detailed feature by feature description of what I need. It took me almost a day of writing and making schemes in order to try to translate my vision into paper (even though I thought it is plain clear – apparently it is not). I provided pretty detailed explanation of every feature I need along with examples from different websites that use these features right now. I also included executive summary. Sure enough some fast readers read executive summary and didn’t read the explanations. I got bunch of questions I already answered in the original document I sent. Again it mean a disrespect to my work and project. I felt that people just want to get the project as fast as possible without making sure that they are actually right people for the job. All of those guys – gone.
Send formal proposal - if you expect me to send you a detailed feature by feature request and schemes of the pages, be kind enough to elaborate on your quote as well. Some people answered with once sentence ” You project will cost $12,000 and will take around 60 days. We can iron details as move along. Looking forward to getting started on your project.” I am sorry that just won’t cut it. I need to know what features take the longest time, your maintenance suggestions and what can be done better. All one liners – gone.
Don’t quote too low – some people quoted me way bellow average like $1500 dollars. This make me suspicious – too good to be true. If everywhere else it costs $5000 and I get it for $4000 that is a deal, if I get for $1000 – it is a scam.
Don’t slam down the competition – I don’t want to hear why other guys are bad. I want to hear why you are good. Concentrate on yourself and what value you bring to me.
Do what you tell me you will – if you tell a client that you will send an email by the end of today – do it. Don’t send it after 3 days without even apologies – gone.

I am glad to say that 3 businesses passed all my picky tests and moved up to the next level of competition. My next step in weeding out who is gone it is to look more carefully on the previous work done and their expertise. I am not just going to look on their portfolio, but also to contact their previous clients and see if they would recommend them as suppliers. I will then look on who is “getting it” my vision I meant and with whom I would like to work together for at least all of the next year.

So here it is, I am picky – but I apply same standards to my suppliers that I apply to my own business.

p.s. I am going to also look on a local level and compare the cost savings
p.p.s. my next post will explain exactly on how long it will take to make the website and what features are the most time consuming