BrainFuel

Here’s a link to an interesting video about Ford’s newest assembly plant in Brasil. Some interesting things I learned in the video: Ford’s suppliers also make their components in the same facility — meaning less confusion. Also, they make many different types of cars in the same plant.

For the past year I’ve been an avid fan of Hacker News. It’s THE site to get the latest news about web / tech startups and the best part is the huge community. The discussion is relevant and the community is really smart. Check it out if you haven’t seen it: http://news.ycombinator.com/

I should really be working on my startup right now. But, I’m not. I’ve been in a valley for the last few days. Other days it’s peaks. Today it’s a valley. That’s how it goes when you’re bootstrapping a product on your own. I suppose that’s how it goes when you have funding, co-founders and a staff as well. Nobody is immune from the peaks and valleys.

When I decided to create a web based product and I really committed to it, I was pretty excited. I could envision myself working on it, marketing it and reaping the benefits of my hard work. I knew from the outset that it would be a long road, that it would be hard work. At that point, it was a vision. After it’s a vision, it becomes real work.

Real work is good, and for me, the coding is fun. But, there are un-exciting aspects of creating a product. Sorting out all of the ancillary details has been a challenge: doing design work (I’m not a designer), figuring out how payment gateways work, creating an LLC, learning about SEO, etc. But amid the technical and logistical difficulties inherent in any worthwhile endeavor, there is one intangible struggle that has to be dealt with along the way.

It’s the interior voice always reminding me that I don’t have to do this. There is any easier way; a path with less resistance. I have a good job and I make good money. It’s funny how this voice becomes louder when my day job is going well. Likewise, the voice is much quieter when the day job is boring or requires me to attend many worthless meetings. Either way, that voice is always there reminding me that I could be doing something else with my free time.

The internal struggle is not surprising really. I believe that anything worth doing will force you to constantly evaluate your values and your purpose. But even then, when you find that what you are doing is in line with your goals, that all your hard work is in fact amounting to something, the internal questioning does not stop. It may quiet down, but it’s never gone and you have to deal with it.

So if you are familiar with this internal voice that I’m describing, whether you’re trying your hand at bootstrapping a startup or just trying to exercise three times a week (another time when this voice becomes loud) and you find yourself in a valley, know that it won’t last. And when things are going really well and you find yourself on a peak, know also that it won’t last.

The worst thing an entrepreneur can do is believe that the peaks will last (when it’s easy). And the worst thing an entrepreneur can do is believe that the valleys will last (when it’s hard). I learned this from C.S. Lewis and it really helps keep me going. Once we realize that the internal voice of opposition is going to stay, and that it’s something we have to deal with, we begin to learn what perseverance is and we can get on with creating awesome software despite its presence. I’m going to go finish integrating that payment gateway now.

As an independent wordsmith, I’m well acquainted with working in non-traditional work places; for instance, my main office (home) and the other locale’s I frequent (coffee houses).

Notice the title of this entry. It’s not about how to be productive. Anyone can be productive, if they so desire, every now and again, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. My objective is to show you how to stay productive once you get there.

In Rise of the Creative Class (a personal favorite), author and sociologist Richard Florida wrote, “We are becoming a society in which Creative Class people literally live in a different kind of time from the rest of the nation.”

Who is this “Creative Class”?

If you can identify with the following quote – from later in Florida’s book – you’re part of it: “While Creative Class people do tend to work long hours, many other factors contribute to the feeling of being crunched for time…The big news about time [is that it] goes deeper than simply working more…We now try to pack every moment full of activities and experiences—at work, at home and at leisure.”

From where I sit, (Lux Coffeebar, if you must know), these are the things that cause me to be most productive in my mobile office:

(1) Account for my surroundings

• The local coffee joint has distinct advantages and disadvantages to working out of the home. Think of the cell phone commercial with the little time clocks in the trash. Pretend those little clocks are spread out all around your home office or moving around you at the coffee house. When you talk to someone longer than you should, you’re wasting time.

(2) Anticipate Distractions

• Make decisions before you get to your home office (or wherever) about where you’re going to sit. And yes, even if you’re in the bedroom, that’s still before you get to your desk.
  • If it’s at home, think about the kinds of things that are likely to beg for your time: the laundry, that new album you wanted to check out on iTunes, updating umpteen social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and any number of other noisy distractions. For me, even too much silence can be a distraction.
  • If you’re at a coffee house, think about all the options you’ll be presented with about where to sit. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been to this particular place before. Sit by the door (or facing it) and you’ll want to look up every time someone comes in; sit near the counter and you’ll be well-placed for shouts of , “Americano for Chris!”
  • You know where the productive spots are, just like you know the best place to sit in a movie theater.

(3) Be Proactive

• The average time tracker says, “I have an hour to fill. I’ll work on project X and see how much I can get done.”
• A better time tracker says, “In one hour, I want to have completed this, this, and that, and this. And I’m going to spend this much time on each part. And I’ll check it off as I go and adjust the schedule in the moment. But I’m going to do it all in one hour.”
• The difference is subtle, but significant.
  • It’s all about your motivation for tracking time at all. One person figures, “I have an hour right now. I’ll have another hour later.” The other person thinks, “I have an hour right now. I might have an hour later. I might not. I better use my time wisely while I have it on me.”

(4) Know when to say ‘No’

• To people around you.
  • Say you have a significant other and he/she likes to chitchat throughout the day, but you’ve got a project that needs 100% of our concentration. Let him/her know you’re going into hyper-focus mode – or opt for a nonverbal method like putting on your headphones. (When I’m working in a public place, about a third of the time I’m wearing headphones, I’m not actually listening to anything. Ha!)

• To Yourself.
  • There’s a difference between changing my mind about how long it will take me to do something and changing my time range because I’m tired of making decisions.
  • Don’t confuse “self-employed” with “freedom from commitments”.

(5) Track The Time

• It’s called ‘tracking’ because you’re actively looking for clues about where The Time, somewhere out there in front of you, is headed.
  • It’s not called ‘following’ because that’s passive and lets time make decisions for you.

• Time Trackers discover lost time.
  • They literally “find time” to do more work, because the act of tracking time helps them right then; in the very moment they need it most. Ever hand write a note and then — because of the very act of doing so — you realize you could probably just throw the note away?

The first four steps have one thing in common: They’re all decided and acted on before hand. Only the last one takes place in the moment.

I’d elaborate on that, but right now, my time’s up.

Next time: Why Time Tracking Is Important For Freelancers.

(Phoenix wordsmith Joey Robert Parks is primarily a non-fiction ghostwriter. In the last six years, he’s written five books for successful, entrepreneurial types; including: a fashion designer and stylist who got his start working for JFK and Oprah; and a book on creative innovation for a high profile, multimillionaire philanthropist. To see how productive Joey is this very moment, follow him on Twitter or visit www.joeyrobertparks.com)

Microsoft has introduced a new program for early stage startups called BizSpark. The goal of the program is to help get broke starups the tools they need to develop and deploy their software.

There are a few requirements to enroll in the program: Your startup has to be younger than 3 years old, make less than $1 million per year in revenue, be web-based, and you must be enrolled by a network partner.

For an early stage startup with little cash, this is a great way to get full access to Microsoft development tools and server software. You can even use things like SQL Server in your hosted, production environment under the program, which goes a long way if you use their database.

I found a local network provider to give me enrollment access and I’m really impressed with how much software is available. It’s no joke. You pretty much get everything Microsoft offers for free. So, if you’re like me and you use the Microsoft .Net platform for your startup (even if you don’t), check out BizSpark to help you get off the ground.

The way that web apps display pricing is quite interesting to me. Mostly because we’re working on our own app and I’m in the process of designing a pricing structure.

I decided to look around at some of the pricing structures out in the marketplace and compare their design. I found a good sample and decided to share my findings.

If you look around, it becomes quickly apparent that pricing in buckets is the preferred model. The alternative is a per-user fee or a per-feature added fee.

“What is better: buckets or custom pricing?  Buckets.  How do I know we learned this?  Since changing the pricing page on our site, our sign-ups/trials have increased 30%.”
– Michael McDerment, CEO of Freshbooks (Source)

Basecamp which promotes a free plan as a business model really makes the it hard to find. It’s there on the bottom.

Beanstalk has a no-frills pricing structure, but why is the sign up button only under the free plan?

Tick keeps it simple with 5 plans and checkmarks.

Wufoo has the most inventive plan page ever! Very cool font and colors, fun names and big buttons. I like it.

Dropsend has clever little icons to represent the increases in capacity for each plan. If you are interested, they have provided some analysis and figures for how many people sign up for each plan.

“With DropSend, we found the best way to get people to upgrade is by offering them a coupon. By upgrading before a specific date, they would save anywhere between 10% – 100% of the first month.”
- Ryan Carson, CEO of Carsonified (Source)

“My advice for those of you building web apps based on monthly subscriptions: have a plan for getting people off of the low-paying plans. Or maybe don’t offer a low-paying plan at all.”
- Ryan Carson, CEO of Carsonified (Source)

Rescuetime is smart to have a free plan (heavily promoted) but also include plenty of business options. The big red sign up button is a plus.

Zendesk has a very clear graph. Showing an increase in size and explaining the features.

FreshBooks adds some clever plan names like “Time Machine” and “Limousine” to the mix. They win at clearly denoting that you can sign up for a free account. Big buttons rule.

Feel free to post any links to interesting pricing screens you have seen.

We’re about to embark on a few information design projects and have been studying up on some new things and ran across a few great resources (some we’ve seen before, and others are new). Here they are:

Pictures of Numbers
http://www.numberpix.com
Really great blog about information design. They have quite a number of great articles.

Info Design PDF
http://backspace.com/infodesign.pdf
Page 20 in particular has some great info design tips. Most of them adopted from this list.

That’s all!

I saw this really great link today: 10 Creative Advertising Ideas from Students. I have to say, each one of them are really great concepts.