ToDo: Test out Web Based ToDo Lists

I've always been a big "list guy". That changed a bit after reading GTD but in general, I still utilize lists to some extent.

A while back, I started using Remember the Milk as one of the key tools to help me keep track of "To Do's" or other general things I needed to accomplish that were not necessarily time specific (i.e., they needed to stay on my radar). Remember the Milk (RTM) is pretty powerful, allowing multiple lists to be created and viewed from separate tabs - ideal for separating the lists for each part of your life.

Tasks can also be prioritized, as well as tagged to create "smart lists". So, for example, if you had two items that need completing but are currently dependent on others, you could tag them with "waiting" and subsequently create a "Smart List" with that tag (where you could view all items tagged with waiting). Other things that RTM does well is preserve list/task completion history (from deletion or archiving), allows other RTM members to assign you tasks, and supposedly supports iCal (although I haven't been able to get a list to sync with 30Boxes or Google Calendar).

I recently came across Brian Benzinger's 25 To Do Lists to Stay Productive and tried out a couple of other services that are worth noting including his top picks of Orchestrate, Wallnote, and Rough Underbelly. I really like the concepts behind Wallnote and Rough Underbelly. In Wallnote, you can add your list to your Active Desktop in Windows XP meaning that you can make updates to it from your desktop, as if you were in the browser itself.

Rough Underbelly is based on based on The Printable CEO and allows you to score your tasks, to provide a better guide and gauge for productivity: "a good CEO should focus primarily on those things that move the company forward." Don't be thrown off by the CEO title - the principles and ideas apply regardless of position.

Concluding Thoughts
After taking a look at Brian's great review in the web based ToDo space, you might feel overwhelmed with options. Options aren't a bad thing. I'd encourage you to think through how these tools might fit into your current approach to managing your work and perhaps even list out the criteria you'd need to see in order to use one of them. Here are some things that are important to me (from a workflow, as well as functionality perspective):

- The ability to have a simple list but the option for additional functionality (like RTM)

- The ability to have multiple lists

- The ability to easily re-arrange items on my list (yes, I want AJAX drag-and-drop)

- The ability to delete items from my list without considering them completed

- The ability to view my list outside a standard web browser view (think Wallnote or some sort of Firefox plugin)

Feel free to share which of these tools (if any) work for you.

Web Based Invoicing - Blinksale and FreshBooks

After serving customers well, the next most important thing to your business is to actually get paid. That's where Blinksale and FreshBooks can help your small business with billing through their web based invoicing systems.

Blinksale
Blinksale helps you organize and streamline your invoicing. Blinksale users can create an invoice and subsequently send it via e-mail, all from the comfort of a web browser.

Other features include sending clients reminders, thank you's, setup recurring payments, and also having Blinksale assess late fees, if necessary. Blinksale also offers PayPal as a payment gateway after linking a PayPal account to the Blinksale account. After linking the PayPal account, users can check an "include PayPal link" on the invoice before it is sent out. That's incredibly useful in providing an easy way for clients to pay the invoice.

Since Blinksale is a subscription based service, they don't take "a piece of the pie." Leave that part up to PayPal.

Learn more about Blinksale.

FreshBooks
FreshBooks does more than just invoicing. It's really a complete Project Management tool, offering invoicing, timesheet tracking, document sharing, a support ticketing system, as well as reporting on all of those.

My instinct is that FreshBooks probably started along the lines of Blinksale but evolved because many of those other tasks (i.e., timesheet tracking and support) tie into billing. For example, it's easy to create an invoice for Company X if you see how much time was dedicated to it.

Concluding Thought
In terms of pricing, FreshBooks allows unlimited invoices to be sent even with their free service. Since Blinksale only does invoicing, that's obviously not the case (you can send three invoices per month via the free service).

On the invoicing side of things, I like the way Blinksale actually includes the invoice in the e-mail versus how FreshBooks just places a link to it. That being said, I did have a problem with the layout of my Blinksale invoice in my hosted Gmail account - but Blinksale also recognized that and directed me to the online invoice page.

If you just want a simple online invoicing tool, Blinksale is the way to go. FreshBooks has a lot of promise in the PM space though and their upcoming feature to send invoices through ground mail (and more on that here) may make it worthwhile to use them, even if you're just looking for invoicing only.

Pipeline Deals - The Sales Tool to Manage your Deals

I was  reading the latest issue of HBR, which focuses exclusively on Sales. One article, entitled Making the Major Sale, lays out an eight step process to help with large or complex sales. The third step is "Developing the sales strategy". In order to do so, it's important to have clear picture what is going on with the sales relationship - the Strategic Sales Opportunity Profile is the answer.

The Strategic Sales Opportunity Profile contains information about those contacted, notes , action items, and the like. Back when this piece was written, the Strategic Sales Opportunity Profile was probably just a simple form. But in the age of the Internet, it looks more like PipelineDeals.com.

Pipeline is "the sales tool to manage your deals". It's not a CRM and it is specifically developed for small to medium sized businesses.

One of the reasons I really like Pipeline is because it presents information in the "simple form" way. Each deal exists within its own Deal Notebook. All of the information - Deal Summary, Lists, People, Milestones, etc - are accessible from one page. It gives a quick snapshot of what's going on.

Of course, it also has some analytics because after all, the point of the tool is to give businesses a better view into their sales pipeline. Users get a bird's eye view of all deals when viewing the Reports tab. They also can look at the Deal Status and Deal Stage reports.

I only have one real problem with Pipeline and it's in regards to its pricing. The pricing structure is based on the number of deals you can manage - it's completely free up to 10 deals. The issue for me is that Pipeline does not distinguish between active and historical deals. So, if you had 25 deals in the system but were actually only managing 4, you'd need to pay the $12/month (which is still relatively reasonable). If Pipeline wants to keep users over the long-run, they are going to need to figure out how to "deactivate" deals and make them read only. Pipeline assures me that they are thinking that through.

Give PipelineDeals.com a try and let me know what you think.

SiteKreator.com - The Easy Way to Build a Website

If for some strange reason you still don't have a website for your small business, then SiteKreator.com may be your answer. SiteKreator.com is the easy and affordable way for small businesses and independent professionals to build and host their web presence.

SiteKreator.com was designed with the non-technically savvy in mind. It is a complete solution from start to finish. Users simply select a template and then can begin adding content.

There are two different versions of SiteKreator.com - Personal and Business. For those that only have a 10 MB site or less, they can utilize SiteKreator.com for free. Otherwise, packages start at $19.95 / year for the Personal Edition and $95.00 / year for the Business Edition.

The Personal Edition comes with less file storage, does not provide the option to utilize the high-end Business Edition templates, and does not allow header customizations. But both allow domain mapping, so that sites don’t have to exist solely under the SiteKreator.com domain.

One of things that most impressed me about SiteKreator.com is their Content Delivery Network (CDN). No matter what edition you are using, you'll get robust and scalable hosting (available around the world). The content of a website is served depending on where a user is located, which as they note, leads to the best possible user experience.

I know I just brushed over the "need" for a website in that first line. Besides the fact that tools like SiteKreator.com make it easy to create a site and only require a low financial investment, getting online can do wonders for you and your business. I find that even more true for small businesses and independent professionals, where it's more important to build trust and display your expertise with potential customers.