This Week In Business: The Too Much Information Edition
Do you ever ask yourself what you think is an innocent question involving a bit of internet research only to find two weeks later, you know way too much about what doesn’t work and why?
I researched different web conferencing software packages including GoTo Meeting, Teamviewer, WebEx, iLinc, DimDim, and MegaMeeting. (I am only listing them here to make myself feel like I did something during that seemingly wasted work time!)
Besides doing a lot that didn’t work, here’s what happened:
I found Skype (with the Mikogo add-on) was perfect for holding free and productive web conferences.
I was looking for a cost effective (read: free or cheap) way to hold virtual meetings. It began with Skype until I realized that I couldn’t share my screen on a group conference call. After this, I tried all kinds of different web conferencing solutions including the ones that didn’t work above. They were either cost prohibitive ($50 or more per month) or they lacked in an important way (like having a 2.5 second sound delay).
This Week In Business: Lack Of Sleep Edition
It’s been an interesting week here at Breaking Even Communications and in my life in general.
I’ve had a hard time sleeping, which is uncharacteristic of me. Most of what’s on my mind was thoughts of my grandfather. It was confirmed yesterday that he has liver cancer. He is one of my favorite people in the world, and one of my role models as far as being a good person.
I used to think that there would be times in my life that would be easier and times that would be harder. The older I get though, the more I realize that most times in life will be sort of mixed, and there is importance and even satisfaction in just moving forward. So onward for Pepere, and myself…
Here’s what’s been going on businesswise this week:
Matt and my workshop went really well…and we’re already planning another.
Besides running out of time and not having a good system to answer people’s questions, things went smoothly last Saturday. We have been asked about follow-up workshops, not only by people who came but by people who heard about it.
We decided to use our common website to post information about upcoming workshops and how-tos about the topics we didn’t get to. If you want to check it out: http://www.downeastlearning.com. We’re planning one in May about making websites search engine friendly. Stay tuned!
I gave a talk about blogging at my local library.
Last night, I gave a talk with a fellow local blogger at the Jessup Memorial Library. Four people showed up, which was a lower turnout than I was hoping.
This Week In Business: Dress Rehearsal Edition
It’s finally spring in this corner of the world, I hope you’ve been enjoying nature equally where you are at!
Matt and I are finally giving our workshop Saturday and in regards to that, it’s been a week of learning software here at Breaking Even Communications. Here’s what’s been going on:
I am trying ManyMoon project management software.
I use Google Applications a lot for my business. (Full disclosure: I own one share of Google one thing I was looking for was integration of project management software with my Google Calendar. It was in looking around that I stumbled on the Google Apps marketplace. This is kind of misleading, as I assumed all these programs would cost money. Au contraire!
I looked for the highest rated project management apps and found Manymoon. There are both paid and non-paid versions of the software (I’m clearly trying out the free one) but it allows me to schedule tasks that I can associate with individual projects and that will be imported into my Google Calendar. Also, I can collaborate with multiple people on the same project, though I think we all need Google accounts to sign in.
This Week In Business: The Stubbornly Training Edition
The honeymoon is officially over, folks. Last week, I got a cute skiddish dog named Gidget. This week, it has been all about establishing calm assertiveness à la Cesar Millan and getting the now outgoing (and oddly vocal) Gidget trained. The good news is I’m more stubborn than a 30 pound Corgi mix but that doesn’t mean this has been a cakewalk. There has been whining, panting, and other attention seeking behavior (her, not me). But I am firm and so far, I’m winning very small victories with crate training and basic commands. Who knew she could sit like a meerkat?!
Trying to work through the whining, here’s what’s been happening at Breaking Even Communications:
Flickr had me convinced that I was going crazy.
So I saw there was a breakingeven user on Flickr and I was pretty convinced it was me. I set up the account a couple months ago…only I couldn’t remember what email address I had set it up with. I’ve been wanting to look more into image sharing as part of a project I’m working on for a client but I wanted to set it up my Flickr presence with ‘breakingeven’ if I was able.