Carsonified

Before the announcement of iPhone, building web apps for mobile devices was very hard to justify financially. We would never consider it because the market is too fractured with different devices with different standards. It was a complete nightmare.

Not anymore.

Better Mobile Browsing

The iPhone’s browser looks to be very close to Safari (this is just a guess, but a safe one I believe). This means that with some clever planning, web app companies like us can build apps that reliably work on both desktop and mobile platforms!

Access to standard OS features

Not only is the browser going to support standard web apps, but because the phone runs OSX, you’ll have all the standard access you’re used to when it comes to the OS.

Power to the people!

This blows open the market for web app companies. Now we can build web apps that can be used at your computer and on the go. Holy crap!

Of course, most web apps aren’t suitable (or useful) on mobile phones. However, there are a ton of great ideas that could be the perfect marriage of desktop (while you’re at the office) and mobile (while you’re out-and-about).
Not only this, but 3rd party software developers are going to have a hay-day with this. We should see an explosion of quality, useful mobile applications.
You may be saying, “Well, that’s great for everyone who owns an iPhone. But what about everyone else?” True, but if the success of the iPod is any indication, we’ll see massive worldwide adoption of the iPhone.

I can’t wait to think of our next web app idea :)

I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about a piece of hardware, as I am about the new Apple iPhone.

Unfortunately I can’t find a video of Steve Jobs’ keynote at MacWorld, but Engadget has a great blow-by-blow blog post with tons of photos.

I just hope it doesn’t take fricken forever to get over to Europe.

I’ve been trying a new strategy and holy biscuits, am I getting a lot done.

Every day, I grab about 10 things off my “This Week” list and put them on my “Today” list. Then (and this is the key) before I even open my email program, I try to knock at least two things off my Today list.

It works :)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: email is a great way for other people, instead of yourself, to dictate what you do on a day-to-day basis. Take control by doing what you want to do, before responding to what others want you to do.

When your business is small, you should focus 100% on your cash flow. However, when you start to grow and cash isn’t as tight, it’s really important to get to know your balance sheet.

For those who don’t know, a balance sheet is a report (usually generated by your accounting software or accountant) that shows the current value of your business.

You’re building something valuable

Why is it so important to regularly review your balance sheet?

It’s simple: you want your business to be worth as much as possible. The amazing thing about running your own company is that not only are you paying yourself a salary that you’re (hopefully) happy with, you’re creating something that you can sell for quite a bit of money some day!

You should be actively monitoring the value of your company (your balance sheet) and be aware how much it’s worth. Has it gone up in value over the past quarter? Down in value? Why?

Knowing exactly what’s going on is vital to keeping your business growing and valuable.

Give me the nitty gritty

So how do we do it at Carson Systems? Well, we use QuickBooks. This is unfortunate, as its reporting capabilities are very poor. It’s great for viewing Accounts Receivable/Payable and other cash flow related issues, but it really sucks when it comes to viewing a valid Profit & Loss Statement (P&L), or the Balance Sheet.

So what we do is have our accountant prepare a monthly report with both our P&L and our Balance Sheet. We have him compare the current month to the last month and also the current month with the same month the previous year. This gives us a good idea how we’re preforming.

How do you do it?

If you’re a business whiz, please share your tips in monitoring and keeping your Balance Sheet healthy!

I used to hate the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The whole concept sounded really selfish and almost a little “dirty”. Then my mom (who is the antithesis of selfish) mentioned that she had read it and that it was really packed with wisdom.

“Hmmmm … If Mom loves it, it must be quality,” I thought. So I grabbed myself a copy, and holy crap, it is packed with amazing advice.

“The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it”

That’s Principle #1 from the section “Win People to Your Way of Thinking”. Carnegie points out that as soon as you start arguing with someone, you’ve lost the fight. Have you ever been won over by someone who argues with you? I know I haven’t.

Basically, every single one of us gets defensive when we’re attacked - even if we know we’re wrong. Nine times out of ten, you’ll dig your heals in and fight back.

So if you’re trying to convince someone, the last thing you should do is argue with them.

It’s all about the Good Will

Sure, you may win an argument. But will that person have good will towards you? Probably not. They’ll probably resent the fact that you were right and that you proved it to them.

If you really want to convince somebody of something, before you start an argument, take a quick step back from the situation and try to see things from their point of view. Why do they think the way they do? Why should they switch to your point of view?

I was browsing TechCrunch today and was surprised to see an article about DropSend (one of our web apps) called “Anatomy of a Failed Merger“. It’s about my writeup of the failed DropSend-YouSendIt acquisition.

As I said in the comments, the reason why I wrote the post was to help other small companies like us, to understand how these negotiations work. It’s pretty scary and confusing if you’ve never been through it!

If you’re hoping to sell your web app or company some day, I hope that you find it useful.

Happy new year everyone! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

I’m a big believer in setting goals. If you don’t do this, there’s no way to measure if your life is heading in the direction you want it to go. Every year, I sit down and have a hard think about my personal and business goals.

First of all, I think about my personal goals. Why do I nail these down before my business and work goals? Because I believe that business and work should help you achieve your personal goals, not the other way around.

I divide my personal goals into four areas:

1. Mind
2. Relationships
3. Body
4. Financial

After I’ve got those written down, I move onto business and work goals. I haven’t divided these up into categories, but if that interests you, feel free to do so.

Make them measureable

A really important part of setting goals is to make them measureable. You want to know for sure if you did or didn’t achieve them at the end of the year.

Here are some examples of measurable goals (good):

1. Excercise three times a week
2. Read one book a month
3. Achieve $10 Million in company revenue

Here are some hard-to-measure goals (bad)

1. Be more pro-active
2. Increase network of contacts
3. Be more positive

At the end of the year, you want to be able to look over your list and know whether or not you succeeded.

The most important thing about setting goals is that it allows you to step back from your life and look at the big picture. Are you happy with where your life is going? Are you becoming the person you always wanted to be?

Setting goals is a great way to pro-actively move towards being who you always wanted to be! Here is a sample of my 2007 goals:

Personal

1. Exercise three times a week
2. Read one book a month
3. Save £____ per month

Company

1. Increase profit by 30%
2. Have DropSend up to $20K revenue per month
3. Have £_____ cash in the bank

Feel free to share some of your 2007 goals below!