Successful Blog

Cool Tool Review: Mechanical Turk

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: Mechanical Turk
A Review by Todd Hoskins

“Maybe we should hire an intern.” If you have uttered this phrase, or heard these words spoken inside your organization, stop and ask the question: “Would an intern grow and learn from this project?” If the answer is no, you may do yourself a favor by setting up a relationship with a crowd-sourcing service such as Mechanical Turk. Even if an intern is a possibility, how much trouble is it going to be to find one? And, will you get better results with paid labor than with an intern?

Mechanical Turk aims to create large and easy to assemble workforces to complete simple tasks that would otherwise be nearly impossible to finish given their overall volume. “Mindless tasks” often require a mind. Artificial intelligence has become more intelligent, but sometimes tasks are better suited to people rather than computers.

I have used Mechanical Turk to find, categorize, and document scattered information on the web. This could be used for sales leads, research, categorizing the sentiment of blog and forum posts, transcribing audio, tagging content, or cleaning up a database. Once you set up and fund an account, you post a task. You assign a cost per task. If you are not satisfied with the quality of the work, you don’t have to pay the workers. With the thousands of people looking for flexible and/or stay-at-home work, tasks typically get done quickly. The key is explaining the tasks with clarity and details.

Here’s a Best Practices video.

Mechanical Turk is owned by Amazon, so there is legitimacy.

UPDATE: The workers that earn a supplemental income through working with Mechanical Turk may only get paid pennies for a completed task, but the free marketplace means that workers will be inclined to find the tasks that pay best – the most money for the least effort. If you post a task and don’t get sufficient workers, you need to increase your pay rate. It is common for MT workers to make in excess of $12 per hour.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 4/5 – Quality of the output depends upon the quality of the direction. Even large companies can benefit from the speed and flexibility of Mechanical Turk.

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – Minimize your time being focused on energy-draining tasks.

Personal Value: 1/5 – Hmm. De-duping my contact database?

Let me know what you think!

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Tool Review: GTD Software

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: GTD Software
A Review by Todd Hoskins

Are you a taskmaster?

If you’re like me, the answer is “sometimes.” Becoming focused on tasks and ferociously managing a checklist of To-Do’s has some risks including:

1. You forget the big picture. Vision and purpose disappear, and you adopt the perspective of the mouse rather than the eagle, moving from one crumb to the next.

2. You get overwhelmed by the amount of tasks to be done. Losing sight of priorities and limitations, you shut down, or do the easy/fun/random task rather than being focused and thoughtful.

3. You tackle the urgent rather than the important. Eating only when you are starving leads to peaks and valleys in energy, and creates a domino effect of bad habits.

4. You do what everyone else needs you to do. Not paying attention to your own needs and desires leads to resentment, depression, and lifelessness.

5. You rebel against obligation. Some addiction or distraction pulls you away from responsibility and you play the proverbial round of golf while the mortgage is 60 days overdue. The internal cry of “F*** this!” is a sign that some combination of risks 1,2,3, and 4 are demanding your attention.

The reason David Allen’s Getting Things Done system has become so popular is that we all get overwhelmed, lose focus, and find less satisfaction in the “raking leaves syndrome” of working than we want. Also, the concept of Getting Things Done is meant to be applied to your whole life, not just your job or business. It’s a great feeling when we are moving towards goals, personally and professionally, and on a daily basis enjoying the sense that “I was productive. I was focused. I did what I wanted to do. I did what I needed to do. And I am moving towards accomplishing what is important to me.”

The psychological basis of GTD is simply that we spend too much of our time with too much information in our head. The key is to get it out of our head, and onto paper (or software). Leo Babauta provides a great introduction here. The checklist by itself fails to recognize that many tasks must be done to complete a project (“Buy vacation condo” and “Send email to Dad” are not comparable). Ideas become projects that then are broken down into tasks. Then, the tasks must be prioritized and put in context – What can be done at home? On errands? At the office?

For me, GTD was a godsend. I juggle fatherhood, multiple clients, creative projects, websites, relationships, social events, and domestic activities. “Getting it all out” in order to get it done forces me to reevaluate what I’m doing, and lets me occasionally experience the bliss of flow.

So, after some research and conversations with other GTD believers, I can recommend the following software on their respective platforms.

Mac: OmniFocus is the favorite premium offering with lots of slick features, but for the money (donationware), the best is iGTD. “It works how I think,” said one user.

PC: Avoid the Outlook plug-ins, as they tend to make email the primary focus rather than an additional feature. Nozbe is built for individuals and organizations, and also works with Evernote. Nozbe also has an iPhone and iPad app. For installed software, Wieldy is nice and simple. I tried it, and found it useful, but I’m too dependent on my mobile device, and I prefer the cloud over a local program.

Android: ActionComplete gets the nod. The coolest feature is that it can be location-enabled. reminding you of tasks based on your geographical coordinates (You are close to the dry cleaners!)

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 3/5 – GTD does not resonate with everyone, therefore it’s hard to implement for large organizations. Look at Nozbe. Also, Backpack is a good enterprise tool and GTD-friendly.

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – Focus. How many entrepreneurs do you know who need focus?

Personal Value: 5/5 – Getting your life in order + making dreams a reality!

Let me know what you think!

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Tool Review: FastMule

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: FastMule
A Review by Todd Hoskins

running-mule

Most of us have our fail-to-backup stories. For me, it was three years worth of financial records. At the time, I was backing up my music collection, but not my expenses, transactions, and bills. What does that say about me?

Cloud storage has changed the way we think about carrying around portable hard drives. No more need to worry about mysterious noises originating from hardware, or floods, or thieves, or Johnny discovering the poetry you are secretly writing. As long as you trust whomever is managing “the cloud” and are rigorous about your passwords, all your vital stuff can be safely stored in cyberspace.

Fastmule has a funny name, but a valuable service. While cloud storage has been accessible for awhile (measured in interweb time), Fastmule gives you up to 2 GB of storage for free, or unlimited storage for $50 a year.

So, employee and customer records, bookkeeping, taxes, anything prefer to keep rather than shred. Think of how clean you can now keep your desktop. Think about how you can sleep at night knowing every piece of valuable data is locked away.

Using Fastmule is very simple. After the install, a folder is set up on your desktop. Simply move the files and documents you want to backup into the folder, and then they are magically copied into your little vault in the sky. (Actually they’re on a server somewhere, but thinking literally about locked clouds is fun). The data transfer is encrypted – no one is going to steal your valuable data in transit.

fastmule

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 1/5 – Lack of administering permissions make Fastmule better suited for small companies

Entrepreneur Value: 4/5 – Cheap. Encrypted. Easy. U/X and support could be improved

Personal Value: 4/5 – Pictures, video, music, journals, love notes – make your own cybertreasure chest

Let me know what you think!

Image courtesy of Jackiem552 on Flickr

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Tool Review: Wazala

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: Wazala
A Review by Todd Hoskins

A few years ago, small companies were constantly complaining about the eCommerce divide – the cost and headache of setting up an online store, collecting product images, managing transactions, and the dreaded shopping cart was separating the haves from the have-nots.

Wazala, formerly Vendr, allows anyone to be in the “have” category. It’s a huge breakthrough for small companies that have hard goods or digital goods to sell, but don’t have the resources for NetSuite. The technology has been there (Volusion comes to mind), with plenty of “turnkey” solutions.

The difference with Wazala is that it is a pop-up store, a store within your site. You don’t need a new domain or designer, or additional software. With copied and pasted code, I had a store on my WordPress blog in less than 10 minutes.

vendr

Costs range from free (up to 5 products) to $30/month for up to 250 products. Inventory tracking, product categorization, search, coupons, and discount codes are available for larger stores, along with integration for bookkeeping and fulfillment. Payments can be processed through PayPal or Google Checkout for all stores.

The one missing element is integration with affiliate programs, which is reportedly being developed. For now, if you run a successful blog or are a small to medium sized company, Wazala is a super, simple service if you have your own products to sell.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 2/5 – Sell direct and have just a few products? Then, yes.

Entrepreneur Value: 4/5 – 15 day trial gets you into eCommerce

Personal Value: 2/5 – Try selling your knitted cardigans on your blog. Why not?

Let me know what you think!

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Tool Review: Zamzar

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: Zamzar
A Review by Todd Hoskins

kafka

“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous insect.”

This is the opening line of The Metamorphosis, a short novel by the German author Franz Kafka. It is a mind-bending book. The web service, Zamzar, which was named after the transformed character in The Metamorphosis, is equally mind-bending.

Zamzar converts files, hundreds of different file types, without an installation. It’s fast, easy, and free.

So, let’s say you want to take a portion of a PDF and include it in a presentation (a Prezi, I hope). Or you want to take a YouTube video with you to illustrate a point in a meeting, but you’re not sure you will have an internet connection. In either case, you need to be able to convert the file to make it usable in a new format.

Through Zamzar, you either upload a file, or direct the service to a URL. Zamzar will convert the file to your desired format, then send you access to the new file. Conversions typically take minutes, depending on the size (up to 100MB). You can convert up to five files simultaneously. There are some annoying ads, but I will gladly deal with the annoyance for a service this spectacular.

If you want faster service, file storage, and higher size limits, you can pay. For businesses, this is a good idea. For the individual user, the free service will likely suffice.

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 5/5 – Design, Marketing, IT, and even Finance will benefit

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – Don’t spend time looking for image conversion and document conversion utilities – Zamzar takes care of it

Personal Value: 5/5 – Pictures and Video. You will use it, trust me.

Let me know what you think!

Image courtesy of mrc1028 at Glogster

Todd Hoskins helps small and medium sized businesses plan for the future, and execute in the present. With a background in sales, marketing, and technology, he works with executives to help create thriving organizations through developing and clarifying values, strategies, and tactics. You can learn more at VisualCV, or contact him on Twitter.

Cool Tool Review: LegalZoom

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Todd Hoskins Reviews Tools for Business

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in an entrepreneurial business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: LegalZoom
A Review by Todd Hoskins

If you are in business management, there will come a time that you either have to interact with or hire an attorney. The time I’ve spent discussing contractual minutiae with lawyers now could be measured in weeks rather than hours.

Fortunately, of the four guys I grew up with, one is an attorney. The other three are an investment banker, a doctor, and a plastics engineer. Quite lucky, especially considering the engineer is also a car enthusiast who tells me what’s wrong with my aging automobiles. Money, body, car, and the law – I’m covered.

But I’m limited in how often I can get free advice from my buddies. Good thing that not all legal issues require the services of an attorney, and that’s why I love LegalZoom. For entrepreneurs, LegalZoom not only gives you a library of standard forms, it files them for you with the appropriate entities.

For example, if you are looking to incorporate, LegalZoom will ask you all the necessary questions to complete the paperwork (think TurboTax). LegalZoom will not only file the paperwork with your state, it will also give you the option of applying for a business license and allow you to submit the required annual report. Bylaws, resolutions, and agreements – if it’s standard legal fare, LegalZoom likely will allow you to get it done more quickly and more cheaply.

Think you may have some intellectual property or an invention worth protecting? LegalZoom will allow you file a provisional application for a patent, or do a patent search and apply for a utility patent.

I have used LegalZoom twice in the past four years, and found it both affordable and easy.

legalzoom

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 1/5 – If you can afford to employ a corporate attorney, you probably don’t need LegalZoom

Entrepreneur Value: 4/5 – Doesn’t do everything, but for a startup saves time and money

Personal Value: 4/5 – Wills, divorces, power of attorney, real estate leases, even bankruptcies