One of the career and small business mantras I follow is that “Your business / career should be built around something you are willing to do for free“. Something so fun and rewarding to yourself that you would like to do it very often, most of your days. I can’t claim to be [...]

Can you survive on your own?

July 10, 2009 | Comments Off

Independently I mean. Without the help of your parents? And without the help of adoptive parents in the way of an employer? No shame in accepting that you can’t: most people can’t. However, it is an interesting mental exercise, and an interesting idea to explore.  In an age of almost 10% [...]

In Professional Services terms there are two general ways of pricing a project:

Fixed Cost
Time and Materials

Unit of Cost
Project
Time (hour or day)

Most Risk
Consultant
Client

When to do it
Clear Expectations
No Fixed Set of Requirements

Fixed Cost is preferable in many situations. Alan Weiss agrees on his consulting books.   Some of the reasons why:

Provide Value – Not Time.  You want to be [...]

QuickBooks – Nothing Beats Free

June 25, 2009 | Comments Off

For my business accounting I use QuickBooks Pro.  But to tell you the truth, chances are I would be equally happy with the QuickBooks Simple Start Free Edition 2009.  I have less than 20 customers (big ones).  And most of what I do need accounting for is create invoices, pay bills and print checks – [...]

For years I doubted a product sold at Airport kiosks was worth my money.  I have been proved wrong twice.  Once with Rosetta Stone, and twice with NeatReceipts.  It is just that I didn’t acquired either at the airport (the former can be bought used and the later can be bought ‘refurbished’ for $99 vs [...]

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