Want to start your own business and work from home?

Inc.com published a list of 9 examples of people who started a successful business from their home.

One of them is a self employed insurance broker who offers live webcam chat through his website. You do not need to know anything about insurance to imagine this can have a positive effect on customers who do not have time to make an appointment with him.

Enjoy the read!

Earlier this month, Marketingsherpa put up a short post about the answer to that question. They state that you can as easily participate by commenting on other blogs as you can by setting up your own.
While they insinuate that blogging is hard and time consuming, commenting is certainly easier (be sure to set up some kind of profile page to link back too though).

For me however, it has been very satisfying already!

Actually, it is no replacement for an agenda. Todo-lists are the small task lists you would also write on paper, like grocery lists. You can keep writing them on paper but since we’re in the digital era, there are great replacements. One of them is the free Ta-da Lists from 37 Signals. Another well-known is Remember The Milk. But even the “famous-all-round-application” Excel does the trick for many.

The key to improve your productivity is to write everything down you need to do. This makes sure you don’t need to remember each single thing and gives you the possibility to handle task by task.

Certainly when working on projects (of any kind), you will have a todo-list for each of them. In development environments a bug-tracker partially takes care of this, but in numerous situations you’ll need to use todo-lists separately.

The basic rule you have to live by in creating successful lists, is this: split up your todo’s in as many small tasks as possible. Then take care of them one by one at the appropriate time. When using one of the mentioned online tools, you can mark them completed and they will disappear from your list (which gives some kind of satisfaction).

And don’t feel awkward if you start to create lists of lists. This is perfectly normal and provides you with a global overview while still having small tasks at the bottom level.

I believe the use of todo-lists is part of the methodology “Getting Things Done” (or GTD). I have not really thoroughly read anything about GTD, but I assume it is a useful practice (for some more than others, like with everything).

Related post on Enso.

Especially if it is about such a controversial device:

Today, Amazon released the second version of their Kindle. It has many improvements, including a better integration of the previously annoying paging buttons.

While some people can’t see the advantages in a device like this, you must admit Amazon is trying its best to build a useful replacement for “dead-tree” books. I have never seen one, but the “E-Ink” paper-like screen technology makes the screen readable everywhere (even in bright sunlight) and consumes significantly less power than a regular LCD.

Sadly, the price is still outrageously high.

Peter is a web designer and teacher of Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver (Dutch). In case you are interested in any basic or advanced training: do not hesitate to contact him. The same goes for any graphics design for the web of course.

While his site is in Dutch, I am in no doubt he speaks fluent English by now.

Be sure to add his feed to your RSS reader for your weekly shipment of amazing design related news!

So yes, you read that right! Besides the fact that it is not actually free, it is all true. Well, it’s also almost for free. Certainly if you look at what you get in return:

• Funny colleagues.
• A magnificent view.
• And of course… Rautemusik!

Don’t hesitate: get your office space in Hasselt (Dutch) while it is still available.

Who knows. Maybe you’ll save the economy!

I like these:

• Advertising in general, Google Adwords (or similar) in particular. On the PPC advertisement programs (like Adwords), you can increase the funds in your account and use them when they are needed.
• Gifts for your customers. Coupons are nice because they can also be used when needed.
• Training: push yourself to take an exam next year and pick a date now!

And the obvious:

• Hardware (ask your accountant what urgently needs replacement – who else knows best). Don’t forget to recycle the replaced parts!
• Software licenses.
• Pension plans.
• And books of course. One I’m currently reading and highly recommend:
  Landing Page Optimization by Tim Ash – highly recommended (although I didn’t finish it yet)
• A Nabaztag.

If you don’t over-spend foolishly, you’ll have the same “problem” next year.

Other tips? Let me know and I’ll add them to the list.

Some people probably have a solid reason to hide their number and I will respect their choice. But if a business has requested their phone company to hide their number, I am clueless.

Why on earth would they do that?

I have no intention to ever pick up the phone when I receive a “private” call. Never.

If, for some obscure reason, you have such a hidden number and you cannot change it before you start calling, it may be a good idea to leave a voicemail message.

There are some companies (especially in the recruitment sector) that do not get why this may be a smart thing to do. If you are the owner or decision-maker of such a company, I have one small request: please, do everyone a favor and get another job.

If Guy Kawasaki (yes, the one from the motorcycles) states:

Focus on function, not form. Mea culpa: I love good form. MacBooks, Audis, Graf skates, and Breitling watches.

maybe others will follow and finally wake up.

Read the rest of his post about bootstrapping here.

Because even the current president of the United States has heard of the economic crisis, I felt the need to hold a small survey with Belgian customers/colleagues/friends about their vision on what is currently happening.

While it is probably still too early to see significant effects, it’s nice to know what entrepreneurs with a similar activity think and experience.

15 people, all self-employed and active in ICT, send in their responses within the first 3 weeks of November. 5 of them are consultants with a limited amount of clients, while 10 run a company with a larger amount of customers. Because it is difficult to compare their experiences directly, I’ve split up the results:

Feedback of ICT companies on the current economic turmoil.

While the larger companies in this group tend to have a better planned long term vision and the smaller ones state to have none, they do not notice a change in their own business nor act pro-actively. A fairly large part of them notices some effect on their clients. Some doubt about hiring new staff, while others think this is the best moment to do so.

Feedback of ICT consultants on the current economic turmoil.

Although the low amount of participants makes it difficult to conclude anything, the result is aligned with companies with a larger amount of customers. Consultants receive a large part of their income from fixed budget projects and thus are not affected immediately. They also state to never plan ahead more than one year. Their clients, outsourcing companies, expect to see major changes around mid Q1 2009 when the current budgets will be replaced with (less) new ones.

I want express my gratitude to the brief and useful answers that were provided. Thank you all!

Please do not feel offended if I forgot to contact you, but do so if you didn’t answer. Shame on you!

I hope you found this useful: please let me know.