one other small idea- you might look at Freshbooks for hour tracking /
billing. I like it a little bit better than many of the others due to
the API that they have- in case you need to do any custom reports /
etc for your clients.
best of luck on your business.
Kevin
On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 10:39 PM, Holly Fortenberry
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
ClickTime sounds intriguing. I'll look into that. And, I think
I'll use QB too, I've used it some at work so it shouldn't be TOO
hard to pick up, especially with an accountants help, like you said.
And, thank you ALL so much for the excellent advice. You've
helped me quite a bit. I'm getting excited to begin making the
purchases and get set up...it's been a long time coming.
Cheers,
Holly
David Brockman wrote:
Holly, regarding software, I strongly recommend using hosted
applications (Software-as-a-Service or SaaS) wherever
possible. It will greatly reduce your setup costs and maintenance
issues going forward. Typically these services can also easily
grow with you as you add a few employees. Here are a few specific
software ideas:
* *Email & Calendar - Get Google Apps for email for your
custom domain. It's free (you won't need the paid version)
and you also get shared calendar, basic document and
spreadsheet functionality. If you don't already have your
own custom domain (e.g. www.MyCompany.com
<http://www.MyCompany.com>) then get that first (GoDaddy
<http://www.godaddy.com/>, etc.).*
* *Backup* - Get Mozy <http://mozy.com/> and a MozyHome
(unlimited) account. It's only $4.95/month per computer and
can backup everything (documents, images, photos, music,
etc.). Don't take a chance on losing all of your data
should something happen to your computer or your home
office. You can also get a large external hard drive and
use it for Time Machine backups (built into Mac OS X).
Together, Mozy and Time Machine provide a good level of
on-site and off-site backups. But if you're only getting
one of these, signup with Mozy.
* *Bug Tracking* - FogBugz
<http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz/>: there are cheaper
solutions out there but this one works well, especially
with multiple people/employees.
* *Versioning* - I use Subversion in my office and it works
well. There's also a new hosted versioning system from the
makers of FogBugz called Kiln but I haven't tried it out.
* *Accounting* - There are alternatives but QuickBooks is the
standard. It's confusing if you're not experienced or an
accountant. You'll probably want a QuickBooks
consultant/accountant to help you get setup properly and
then help you a couple times per year as needed (before tax
season, etc.).
* *Time Tracking* - I'm biased since my company makes
ClickTime <http://www.clicktime.com/>. Our solution is
good, especially as you add a couple employees.
Here's a blog post that has some other helpful tips
too:
http://www.mann.com/blog/index.php/2010/02/getting-businesses-to-snap-out-of-it/
~ Dave
On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 9:26 PM, Holly Fortenberry
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
wrote:
Hi folks,
I've been a web hobbyist since 1997 and have finally decided
to bite the bullet and start a 1-woman web shop. I plan on
staying small, perhaps never growing larger than 5 employees.
Over the years, I've designed on pc's and macs (I stuck
with the mac), I've used at least 10 different editors and
ended up mostly hand-coding or using Coda or Dreamweaver. I
am passionate about web standards and progressive
enhancement. I am also really getting into database work and
am looking forward to building small business sites for the
folks in my moderately-size town.
So, for those of you who have been where I am now, do you
have any suggestions on the best Mac hardware to buy? My
laptop won't cut it anymore. I'd like a tower but perhaps
that's overkill when you can get those little boxes more cheaply.
Then I wonder how to handle separating the development from
production environments. That is one of my biggest concerns.
What software do you recommend for that?
And, what about versioning, billing and accounting software?
I'm thinking about going with Quickbooks but using Billings
to track my time. Any thoughts about that?
Finally, any other advice you want to give would be welcome.
I'll take advice on any aspect of this.
Thanks!
Holly
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