Welcome IttyBiz and Walmart!

Posted on February 23, 2009 by admin

This week was a great week for learning and a great week for SOBCon09!

It started with an email from Naomi Dunford, CEO of IttyBiz. The subject line was “Sponsorship info, please?” About 6 emails later we had a full-company sponsor deal that means a win for everyone:

funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants (more on that below)
visibility for IttyBiz and direct sampling of new products to key influencers
Naomi’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how she built her business so quickly to a full sponsorship level.
about $700 worth of solid value for every attendee

The very next day, I enjoyed a call with John Andrews of Walmart. We extended the relationship we’d started at BlissDom09. In a short 9 or so minutes, we put together a package that included value in more directions than first meets the eye.

funding to help the conference — allowing us to better serve participants (more on that below)
visibility for Walmart
John’s participation — a chance for participants to find out how Walmart is connecting their vendors with their blogger evangelists.
and some other surprises

Because They Invested in Us We Can Invest MORE in YOU!

Thanks! Naomi and John!!

Business Courses You Can Take Online

Posted on February 23, 2009 by @Stephen

Well, the months of traveling and now moving in to a new apartment have caught up with me. I am finally catching up on correspondence and research. I cam across this via Twitter today, and thought that it would be valuable to the SOBCon community:
85 Absolutely Free Online Business Classes

From SmallBizBee.com

The following courses range in complexity and length, and should offer a good primer for those of you just starting your own business or who want more specialized knowledge in an area of interest.

I hope you find something here that helps you and your business be successful!
General Small Business

* Small Business Primer: Guide to Starting a Business
* My Own Business
* Business Planning Guide Down-Shifting in a Slowing Economy
* Strategic Planning & Execution
* Increase Your Business Success
* Organize Your Small or Home Office
* Evaluating the Potential of Business
* Business Organization
* Licenses & Permits
* Business Insurance
* Location and Leasing
* Expanding and Problems
* Buying A Business
* Online Tutorial for Starting a Business
* Entrepreneurship and Business Planning

Click over to SmallBizBee for the full list and the links.

Time Trackers for Fun and Profit

Posted on February 17, 2009 by @Stephen

From Online College Blog and School Reviews

Time Trackers

Whether you want to keep track of the time you work at home or for billable hours or if you need to limit your web browsing in order to keep on task, these time trackers are invaluable tools to keep yourself organized and focused.

Harvest. Track your work time, log expenses, and invoice clients with this powerful and intuitive tool that has different versions for different business needs.

SlimTimer. If you work from home, this tool will help you track your hours, create tasks, and run reports for free.

Toggl. This time management tool not only tracks time and creates invoices, it integrates with Basecamp and offers desktop widgets and an iGoogle gadget.

Time Tracker. This Firefox add-on times your browsing sessions and allows you to set up “work” sites that do not count as unproductive browsing time.

Wakoopa. Track the time you spend using various apps and create visibly pleasing graphs to quickly understand your usage.

RescueTime. Like Wakoopa, this tool will track your usage, but unlike Wakoopa, you can set limits to where you browse and will receive reminders when you have run out of time.

What tools do you use to keep track of your time, client time, etc? Leave a comment.

Collaboration Tools

Posted on February 10, 2009 by @Stephen

One of my favorite things to result from my experience at SOBCon last year were the fantastic collaborative efforts that I was able to put together with other attendees.Online College Blog and School Reviews provides a list of online apps for managing your own collaborations.

The question is, what are you waiting for?

Collaboration

Working with others means managing the thoughts and ideas of more than just yourself. Don’t go crazy trying to keep up with everything; instead, use these collaboration tools to keep connected, share ideas, and work together on projects successfully.

Collaboration

Working with others means managing the thoughts and ideas of more than just yourself. Don’t go crazy trying to keep up with everything; instead, use these collaboration tools to keep connected, share ideas, and work together on projects successfully.

Backpack. Whether you are working with fellow students or in a professional setting, Backpack allows for easy collaboration with features such as shared to-do lists, announcements, calendars, files, and even centralized discussions.

Basecamp. Basecamp makes project collaboration easy and smooth. Share files, track time, schedule milestones, assign projects, make to-do lists and more.

Highrise. If your business need a tool to manage your contacts, leads, and on-going deals, Highrise offers a centralized way to share everything happening at your company.

writewith. For writing projects, this app keeps everyone together with shared documents and tasks, discussions, and more.

iLeonardo. This social network allows you to collaborate on research with friends or others who happen to be working on the same subject you are.

LooseStitch. Create outlines, share with others, and keep all your changes together with this tool that helps facilitate brainstorming and working together.

Famundo. Families and organizations alike will find useful ways to use Famundo to keep calendars, to-do lists, shopping lists, share photos, and communicate in one place.

Thinkfree. The free services with this app include document creation and sharing, file access and sharing, collaboration with colleagues, blogging, and iPhone access. Other services for a fee include server access, complete mobile access, and an alternative to MS Office.

Pidgin. Download this tool so you can IM with anyone on 16 different IM accounts.

MeetWithApproval. Plan a virtual meeting with coworkers or clients or organize a face-to-face using this meeting planner.

Thinkature. Collaborate, organize your thoughts and research, and prepare your paper or project with this tool.

ProBoards. Create a discussion board easily and quickly so you can collaborate. You can also leave the discussion for others to access as well.

ThinkFold. If you have a group working together, it can get confusing and messy trying to track everyone’s ideas. ThinkFold allows groups to create interactive, real-time outlines without all the trouble.

What’s the ROI of Relationships All About? Ask David Sherbow

Posted on February 6, 2009 by SOBCon Team

We asked SOBCon alumnus David Sherbow what the ROI of Relationships meant to him — here was his reply:

“I’ve been in the urban independent record promotion business for 15 years. Many would say that I am one of the best if not the best at what I do. Everybody thinks that getting records on the radio is all about money. Every big record company has money. The great differentiator is the type and quality of relationships you have built. I worked for the VP of Marketing and Promotion of Def Jam Records for 10 years. For the first 5 he taught me everything he knew and passed on his relationships. For the second five years I ran his business by myself and became better at it then he was. When we parted ways it is only because of the relationship he passed on or allowed me to make on my own that has allowed me to survive profitably in what is an extremely difficult business for the last five years.”

David blogs at MusicBizGuy.Com , and you can find him on Twitter @MusicBizGuy. Also, his new website, MPTrax.Com, the first user generated music booking utility, just went up. Check out his 3 minute video presentation on MPTrax.

So what does the ROI of Relationships mean to you? Let us know on a comment to this post, or put up a post of your own and link to us.

See you in Chicago – register for SOBCon09 NOW!