Ok so I know it has been a while, but I have been busy and quite frankly I gave back my iPad. However after much deliberation I have decided to give it another try. I am now using an iPad and iPhone 4G to run my business. Although I have not solved the task of finding a suitable accounting software I have just delegated that part of the business to my new partner and CFO. This leaves me to sales and marketing. Something I think the iPad will be perfect for.
We have decided To make a few changes like going back to salesforce.com for their CRM tools that reside on the cloud. Looking at automating more of our eCommerce functions and keeping all of our files in one tidy location. The upfront work that it takes is going to be a little challenging, but it should allow our sales team to access information easy and from anywhere. Being back on a terminal is so much better than being tied to a particular network or worse yet some slow machine that has too many Programs running anyway.
So without further ado I will be posting quite regularly to keep everyone up to date.
Wish me luck!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Day 6
Yeah I know I missed a couple of days. Nothing like a crazy schedule to get you off of Blogging for a few days. It was good though seems like evryone has their opinion on the iPad, some call it a larger version of the iPod Touch and others say it is the best thing since sliced bread. I happen to think that it is a great piece of hardware to keep me up
late at night while my wife tries to sleep next to me. It is better thank a clacking keyboard and it is definitely way more functional than a kindle or whatever Barnes & Noble calls theirs.
So between yesterday and today I have found a few helpful apps out there. The first is called "Popplet Lite". I actually used it today to pitch to a Japanese company why we should be the best choice to help them set up their US distribution for their products. I can gaurantee that no one else is going to pitch from an iPad in this industry. I was able to show this gentleman the many facets of the US marketplace for his products. Rather than telling him that my company fully understands the players in the industry i was able to show him and allow on the fly manipulation of the data. I can now get rid of my grease boars that I have so feverishly been clinging to.
The other app is Cisco's WebEx. Great app, wish that you could actually set up meetings and host Hem from the iPad, but I am sure that is coming down the line somewhere. It is a good dayp when you can schedule meetings with clients on the road and still attend the webinar on market analysis or a demo that another customer is going through. I can now be in two places at once.
late at night while my wife tries to sleep next to me. It is better thank a clacking keyboard and it is definitely way more functional than a kindle or whatever Barnes & Noble calls theirs.
So between yesterday and today I have found a few helpful apps out there. The first is called "Popplet Lite". I actually used it today to pitch to a Japanese company why we should be the best choice to help them set up their US distribution for their products. I can gaurantee that no one else is going to pitch from an iPad in this industry. I was able to show this gentleman the many facets of the US marketplace for his products. Rather than telling him that my company fully understands the players in the industry i was able to show him and allow on the fly manipulation of the data. I can now get rid of my grease boars that I have so feverishly been clinging to.
The other app is Cisco's WebEx. Great app, wish that you could actually set up meetings and host Hem from the iPad, but I am sure that is coming down the line somewhere. It is a good dayp when you can schedule meetings with clients on the road and still attend the webinar on market analysis or a demo that another customer is going through. I can now be in two places at once.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Day 3
Why in the he'll does financial cloudware have to be so difficult to use. Come on Intuit get with the program. Make it compatible with Safari so we can all be mobile. Great mobile devices out there capable of ruling e World, but we are bottle necked by incompatibility with a browser.
One last complaint and I will get on with the good stuff. Attaching files ... Someone throw me a fricking bone here. I want to be mobile without it looking like I am mobile. Please Apple open up the functionality for email to allow attachments.
So the good ... I have never been so efficient. Yeah it takes a little bit longer to type emails and you cannot run multiple applications at once, but that is good in my world. Getting side tracked and constantly changing gears makes you lose efficiency and just leaves room for error. Finish the task and then you get to move on to the next task.
Love the fact that I can take notes nd then email them to me. This is key, because I use Highrise from 37 Signals for my cRM tool. I can email myself a task or attach it to a contact or a deal. No more having double entry problems and not having a piece of paper to write on really makes me take advantage of these tools.
Each day I fall more and more in love with this device. I will be patient ... For now.
One last complaint and I will get on with the good stuff. Attaching files ... Someone throw me a fricking bone here. I want to be mobile without it looking like I am mobile. Please Apple open up the functionality for email to allow attachments.
So the good ... I have never been so efficient. Yeah it takes a little bit longer to type emails and you cannot run multiple applications at once, but that is good in my world. Getting side tracked and constantly changing gears makes you lose efficiency and just leaves room for error. Finish the task and then you get to move on to the next task.
Love the fact that I can take notes nd then email them to me. This is key, because I use Highrise from 37 Signals for my cRM tool. I can email myself a task or attach it to a contact or a deal. No more having double entry problems and not having a piece of paper to write on really makes me take advantage of these tools.
Each day I fall more and more in love with this device. I will be patient ... For now.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Day 2
WOW what an amazing 48 hours it has been. Both bad and good. Some of the bad has led me into good, for instance printing. We never know how much paper we need to print or why we print things until it is not available to us. However, when the functionality is not there it causes us to really rethink why we print so many documents. I have been duplicating work for quite a few years in fear that if my system crashed I would have a paper trail to help me rebuild. What a crock of crap that is. I have wasted more time by duplicating work than I ever would have lost if something actually did happen. Lesson learned, put the proper measures in place and stop living in fear.
The good, being productive at nearly every part of my day and in every function of my life. My wife and I were going over our plans this evening and by having one source to look at and not having to wait for a booting PC, I was as capable and ready to give her my schedule as I was when I was on the Covey system. I am really trying to modernize her scheduling capabilities, but at this point she cannot just use one device for all of her communication and scheduling needs.
One item that I have really been struggling with is not being able to attach documents to email. I have to say that this downright sucks. There are tons of documents that I normally send each day and getting around this has been more work than I like. I still have not found the perfect solution. Maybe if anyone is actually reading this they can help me out.
Currently I have to either forward the information that someone has sent me (which is a bad idea) or I have to send it from a Gmail, Yahoo, or Mobile Me account. I really don't like this option either, because I think that it is poor marketing practice and bad for your customer to get multiple emails from you on different accounts. Anyway, this has to change. Ik would gladly give up some of the space for movies, music, or photos to have some accessibility to documents.
All in all I am liking this new found friend of effectiveness and look forward to talking my accounting software tomorrow!
The good, being productive at nearly every part of my day and in every function of my life. My wife and I were going over our plans this evening and by having one source to look at and not having to wait for a booting PC, I was as capable and ready to give her my schedule as I was when I was on the Covey system. I am really trying to modernize her scheduling capabilities, but at this point she cannot just use one device for all of her communication and scheduling needs.
One item that I have really been struggling with is not being able to attach documents to email. I have to say that this downright sucks. There are tons of documents that I normally send each day and getting around this has been more work than I like. I still have not found the perfect solution. Maybe if anyone is actually reading this they can help me out.
Currently I have to either forward the information that someone has sent me (which is a bad idea) or I have to send it from a Gmail, Yahoo, or Mobile Me account. I really don't like this option either, because I think that it is poor marketing practice and bad for your customer to get multiple emails from you on different accounts. Anyway, this has to change. Ik would gladly give up some of the space for movies, music, or photos to have some accessibility to documents.
All in all I am liking this new found friend of effectiveness and look forward to talking my accounting software tomorrow!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Day 1
Well phere it goes. I am going to give myself one month to try the iPad out and run my business from it. That means no logging onto my desktop to get files or using Quickbooks on my desktop. I will post more about the apps I am running and the things I had to set upto be able to get to this point.
I own Wilco Imaging, Inc. Wilco is a distribution point for the industrial imaging arena. www.wilcoimaging.com
I have owned the company for 7 years now and have loved every minute of it. I mostly love the new technOlogy that I get to see built rather than just come out. My dream is finally being realized that I can run everything effectively from a single dummy terminal and not have to buy expensive software or carry something that weighs a ton. I love being able to head to meetings without a pen and paper and a huge rollaway like my ancient competitors do. The day of handing out brochures and crumpled papers is far behind us ... I hope.
I own Wilco Imaging, Inc. Wilco is a distribution point for the industrial imaging arena. www.wilcoimaging.com
I have owned the company for 7 years now and have loved every minute of it. I mostly love the new technOlogy that I get to see built rather than just come out. My dream is finally being realized that I can run everything effectively from a single dummy terminal and not have to buy expensive software or carry something that weighs a ton. I love being able to head to meetings without a pen and paper and a huge rollaway like my ancient competitors do. The day of handing out brochures and crumpled papers is far behind us ... I hope.
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