News & the Holidays

With the end of year speeding up and some news here I thought I would do a quick update on the blog.

Working Solo News

First, and most importantly,  I have hired some support in the form of a studio manager. Jamie is a former retail manager with loads of experience in customer service, sales and has a broad working knowledge of the online world. She started working here at the end of November and is already proving to be a godsend.  At this stage she will be here 4 days a week (Tuesday-Friday) but we hope to extend that to 5 days in March or April. If you call and get her instead of me you are welcome to ask her the question or make the request that you might have had for me. Having Jamie here will free me up to focus on the things that really add value to clients.

Christmas/New Year Operating Hours

I know that you probably don’t want to know about it but Christmas is just over a week away (where the hell did the year go). The office will be closing at noon on Friday 19th and all client work will be finishing up on Wednesday 17th (jeez that’s tomorrow and there is still so much to be done). Jamie will be opening the office up on Monday 5th but I won’t be back on board until Monday 12th. It will be a both a busy time and a relaxing one with things like my step-son’s 21st, father-in-law’s 80th, and a good deal of time spent watching and listening to cricket. I hope that you’re getting to have a good break as well.

Getting a mention in traditional media still counts

Even in the world where online media is prevalent is still gives me the warm & fuzzies when we get mentioned in the traditional mainstream media.  That happened yesterday when we were listed next to people like Flying Solo (Robert Gerrish), Alister Cameron and Martin Neumann as some of the best business bloggers in Australia.  What an honour it was to be in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age yesterday.

A big thanks goes our to Martin Neumann for listing us on his Top 15 Business blogs a few months ago.

Redesigned Site

Over the Christmas/New Year period the long promised redesign of this site should appear so stay tuned.

Still not convinced about Twitter?

When it came to Twitter I must admit that I sat back and watched for quite some time, trying to work out the real benefit and whether it was worth my time. Both my actions and beliefs have changed to the benefits of Twitter (you can find me here).

When it comes to real world examples of the benefits of Twitter as a tool for connectivity I will defer, at this point, to one of the hyper-connected people that I’ve had the pleasure to interact with both online and in real-life, Stephen Collins (also known as trib).

Just this morning Stephen put together a very compelling list of benefits he has received from using Twitter.

Twitter is a far more powerful and reliable search engine than Google or Mahalo can ever be. Why? Trust. I trust implicitly any person who chooses to @ answer a question I pose. I filter, of course, but the trust is still there.

Some pretty interesting real world benefits from some online connections!

In Good Company

There are many motivations for a small business owner to create a blog – increased awareness, supplemental marketing, sharing information, selling products or services, improving search engine ranking or monetisation via advertising.

For me blogging has primarily been about an opportunity to connect with people and share information that may be helpful, useful or interesting to them. So it is always a very pleasant surprise when someone acknowledges the Working Solo blog.

Long time small business commentator and blogger Martin Neumann last week announced his Top 15 Aussie Small Business Bloggers and I’m honoured to be on the list. Each one of the blogs mentioned is a great read and many are regulars on my own blog reading list. My good friend and colleague Des Walsh and his Thinking Home Business blog also gets a mention.

If you are new to blogs then you could do well by adding the 15 blogs that appear in Martin’s list to your RSS reader (as well as adding Martin’s blog as well).

Martin’s approach to listing his favourite blogs and then over the coming weeks reviewing them in more detail is a great alternative to the standard blogroll (which I agree with Martin are as boring as bat shit). A personal recommendation and even a review provides far more value to a blog’s readers.

Freshview is Cool Company

I’ve been saying for just over 12 months that Freshview (the guys that bring us Campaign Monitor and Freshview) are cool. There applications are cool, their customer service is cool, their way of working is cool and they are just a great bunch of guys & girls.

Now they have an award that says that they are COOL! Last night at the Australian Cool Company awards (presented by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Australian Anthill magazine) Freshview received the award for coolest online business.

I just love it when Australian software companies are recognised as cool and especially when they are guys I know with an application that I use.

It’s Web Conference Season

This week sees me at my yearly absorption of all great web trends at the Web Directions South conference.

In real-time I will be sharing insights via Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/leahmac) and I will be gathering my notes together when I get a chance for some clear thought and posting here, the best of the information.

At the end of October I’ll be doing a “lunch and learn” half-day session for clients to discuss how these insights might specifically work for them. Just one way I can add some extra value for them

2009 Compact Calendars are here

After a big year for the 2008 Compact Calendar, the 2009 Australian state-by-state calendar is here. I’ve researched the public holidays for each Australian state and territory and the dates, as at September 1st 2008, have been included in the 2009 calendar. As per the current edition, this 2009 edition is a MS Excel file (which is also able to be read by other applications such as OpenOffice Calc).

As you may know from this year’s calendar the Australian version was based on the original Compact Calendar created by David Seah, so I would once again like to thank David for his inspiration.

As per this year’s calendar, I decided to provide individual state-specific files with public holidays just for your state.  If I get some time between now and the end of the year, and if there is enough interest, I’m likely to update these with the public school holidays for each state as well.

For now, enjoy planning out your new year on the fabulous year-to-a-page Calendar and if you are inspired why not share with others how you make use of your Compact Calendar.

Compact Calendar 2009 – NSW

Compact Calendar 2009 – ACT

Compact Calendar 2009 – VIC

Compact Calendar 2009 – QLD

Compact Calendar 2009 – TAS

Compact Calendar 2009 – NT

Compact Calendar 2009 – SA

Compact Calendar 2009 – WA

How to Work Solo and Sustainably at the Same Time

Every time I open the newspaper lately there is another big corporate company making commitments to sustainability and carbon neutrality.  These commitments are both good policy and good marketing.  But do we soloists and small business owners need to leave the sustainability statements to the big guys?  I think not.

So here I am to put out the Working Solo sustainability policy statement and at the same time challenge each of you to commit to and announce your own policy.

Sustainability Statement
Working Solo is committed to running a business that is both socially and environmentally sustainable.  We will seek to minimise and, if possible, avoid adverse effects on the natural and social environment.  Our services will reflect the needs of our clients, our community and be delivered in a way that means our staff, our services and our business are around for the long term.

Environmental & Sustainability Objectives and Commitments
We will:

• actively manage water, energy, paper and resource consumption throughout our office;
• commit to recycling and waste management and to the purchase of recycled products where possible and within reasonable cost boundaries;
• use environmental criteria when choosing prospective suppliers and the selection of products for all operations;
• utilise 100% green energy for our office;
• offset all emissions from business activities and operations and use suppliers who also do the same;
• ensure that we meet or exceed any relevant environmental regulations where we operate;
• volunteer our services and expertise to environmental and social situations and organisations that will represent the same sustainability principals and ethics or Working Solo.

Now it’s your turn … what are the commitments that you and your business make to a more sustainable business environment?

If you are interested in one of the sustainability projects we have recently supported you can visit the FMCG Sustainability Institute.  We were happy to create their website and are providing ongoing web and technology support.

2009 Australian Compact Calender

Over the past 10 months the most popular post on this site has by far been “Compact Calendar 2008 – Australian Version“.  And as the year ticked down more and more people were finding the Working Solo site and using the calendar.

It is been on my mind since July 1st that a 2009 version of the calendar would be needed in the not too distant future.  Today I was prompted by an enthusiastic call from Bill Curry at Affordable Home Loans to commit a date for the availability of the next version.  So you can keep an eye out for it on September 1st.

Wordpress 2.6 Released – But Wait!

If you are a user or watcher of Wordpress you may have noticed that the latest version (2.6) , called Tyner, has just been released.  I’ve had a quick look at it and also the support forums and there appears to be a few things that need sorting out before I would suggest you apply this update.

Will let you know when I think it will be safe to apply.

Good Browsers Take The Next Step

It has been a big week for web browsers with 2 of the most standards friendly and usable ones releasing new versions.

Both Firefox 3 and Opera 9.5 are in general release this week after many months of development and beta testing.  Both have outstanding features that will suit all levels of web browsing.  The landscape of web browsers and the ever evolving world of web design would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for browsers like this.

In my book there is no reason for anyone to be using Internet Explorer 6 any more (it is 7 year old technology)!! In fact if you or anyone you know still uses IE6 then let them know it is time to upgrade.  Even if they don’t want to move away from the Internet Explorer brand to a better browser like Firefox or Opera, then at least to Internet Explorer 7 (IE7).

If you are not on one of the more current browsers you might find that some of the great enhancements of more standards-compliant browsers will just pass you by.

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