As makers of a web-based app, we’re all about folks working from where ever they happen to be in order to get the job done. In fact, I’m writing this from my house where I’m currently snowed in with almost a foot of snow outside and one slightly stir-crazy pre-schooler making paper snowmen at the kitchen table. You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do!
Sometimes, though, it’s nice to have a place to go to do your work where there are not piles of laundry stacked around you and no one is licking their fur really loudly while you are trying to write (LOOKING AT YOU, KITTY). Which is why we’re such fans of the co-working movement. Co-working is the best of both worlds: your schedule is flexible and yours to make, you can talk to folks or not, and you can choose a place that’s conducive to the type of work you need to get done. And all this without the expense and hassle of actually keeping a full-time office.
Many great co-working spaces and apps have cropped up over the last couple of years. I recently gave a presentation with my friend Amy Ellis of MailChimp at the gorgeous Link co-working space in Austin, TX, where we met founder Liz Elam. They have an interesting model where you become a member (like you would for a gym) but rather than working out, you get a lovely, airy, fully-stocked and functional office at your disposal with kitchen snacks and instant, smart co-workers. Genius!
Here’s a quick interview with Liz (sorry for the shaky camera work and the skinny picture: I was actually getting sick that day)
The decorations are up and the turkey’s been eaten, which can only mean that the winter holidays are officially upon us. I know, I know, you’re thinking ‘Wait – didn’t I just finally put my beach chair in the car?’ The good news is that organizing with BatchBook can help take away some of that stress and help keep your holidays full of mirth and merriment.
Here are a few of my favorite tips on how BatchBook can make your holidays brighter this year:
Make holiday card sending a snap
Start by creating a new tag for your holiday cards and tag everyone you’d like to mail to (for instance “holiday10″).
Search though your other tags to find groups of people you’d like to include and BatchAdd these folks to your new holiday tag in one fell swoop.
Want to use your holiday cards to help reconnect with folks you haven’t communication with in a while? Use our handy dandy “record communicated with” Advanced Search to find folks you haven’t spoken with since Valentines Day.
You can build a list using your new tag name with a click of a button. Then check out which labels we support and print your mail labels right from BatchBook!
After an intense round of judging the amazing entries in our “Work to Go” contest, we’re pleased to announce our Grand Prize winner as well as the runners-up! And the iPhone goes to…graphic designer/developer Gernot Bartels! Here’s his award-winning, work-to-going, piratey shot:
What pirate wouldn’t want to work in this cool vintage trailer with his dog at the beach? The BatchBlue staff gave this one two skull and crossbones up.
You can view the other winning pictures, read the entrants’ stories, and find out why we selected each of them over on the Work to Go contest page.
Global climate change is obviously a big, big issue. So what can we as small businesses do about it? As part of Blog Action Day 2009, BatchBlue turned to our resident experts in all things small business (our customers and our contact network, of course!) to find out what they are doing not only to bring in the green, but also to be green in their business practices.
During Tuesday’s small business Twitter chat #SBBUZZ, we discussed how there are many small steps you can take to help green up your business (and thus help do the big work of saving the planet!)
We were fortunate to be joined on #SBBUZZ last night by green expert, author and professional organizer Candita Clayton, who helped guide the discussion about what small business can do to save energy, reduce waste and fight climate change. Here are some simple, easy-to-implement tips that came out of our discussion:
Recycle: Make it easy to recycle paper, glass and plastic. Set up separate bins where they will be seen and used. If your business doesn’t have a program in place, start one! It’s worth it to be the squeaky wheel on this issue since it’s so important. And many communities have programs in place where you can drop off unwanted computers, printers etc. Keeping these hazardous items out of the landfill will go a long way in helping to halt pollution and resultant climate change.
While we love our iPhones here at BatchBlue, we know they are not necessarily the phone of choice among all cell phones users. Our very own president, Pamela, is a devoted BlackBerry owner and has been wanting a mobile version after seeing what we built for the iPhone.
So Adam and I worked together last week and launched support for BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile and even Opera Mini. As with the iPhone version, this is an early “View only” release, but we are looking at adding support for adding contacts and To-Dos here very soon.
Please let us know if you have any features you would like to see in upcoming versions. Mobile BatchBook is already changing our daily work flow, as there’s nothing like having your most up to date contacts with you wherever you go. We hope you find it as useful as we do.
