Today's work on/in the business - Sat 28 Nov

1. Day two of the three day Business Profit/Cashflow improvement seminar. (15hrs 30mins)

I'll be honest - my head hurts... There is so much information coming in, it's going to take me a while to sort it all out and then use it. But I'll get there!

Today included a really nice dinner after the seminar where we could do some networking and socialising - good fun - good food. Who could complain about that?

Today's work on/in the business - Fri 27 Nov

1. Day one of a three day Business Profit/Cashflow improvement seminar run by Aaron Parsons of
http://thebusinesscommandos.com/. 
(11hrs 30mins, including travel time)
2. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)

I was in two minds about attending this, after the initial 2 hour intro. However, I am really glad that I did - not everything that is being talked about will be directly applicable to our business, but there is certainly enough here that can be used to make it worth my while to spend this time here.

Today's work on/in the business - Thurs 26 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)
2. Invoice reconciliation - unfortunately, the new ones are not old enough to chase and there's no point in chasing the old ones - we're pretty sure the outstanding ones will never be paid... (35mins)
3. Continuing work on the new platform for CRM. (9hrs 10mins)
4. Review the project schedules - pushed out again as I'm still working out whether the proposed platform will do all the things we need. (5mins)
5. Review progress made this week and ensure the schedule is right for next week. (5mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Wed 25 Nov

1. Networking - follow up on posts and queries - 2 posts today. (45mins)
2. Continuing work on the new platform for CRM. (7hrs 25mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Tues 24 Nov

1. One question answered - continuing work on the new platform for CRM. (9hrs 10mins)
2. Update MS Access work for customer. (35mins)
3. Look at the statistics that Google Analytics gives you. 159 visits over the last month, 1 visit each from the Netherlands and Germany, 56 new visits - good! (15mins)
4. Record business emails. (5mins)
5. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Mon 23 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (10mins)
2. Follow up on existing customers and prospects. (1hr 10mins)
3. Networking - follow up on posts and queries - 2 posts today. (45mins)
4. Still one question about the proposed new platform for CRM, but got a lot of the first form's layout done today. Of course, this has led to another question - which I've asked the experts... Why is nothing ever simple? (5hrs 45mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Fri 20 Nov

1. Trying to finalise the last couple of issues to determine that the proposed new platform for CRM is viable - still one question... another major piece of the navigation processes sorted out, though. (1hr 30mins)
2. Work on MS Access database for client. Couple of reports finalised and sent to her - now she needs to give me a bit more direction on what information will be useful to her. (2hrs 45mins)
3. Invoice reconciliation. (20mins)
4. Ensure accounts are up to date, including processing an invoice that was paid. (35mins)
5. Fill in form for professional indemnity insurance. (20mins)
6. Review the project schedules - pushed out again as I'm still working out whether the proposed platform will do all the things we need. (10mins)
7. Review progress made this week and ensure the schedule is right for next week. (15mins)
8. Respond to the first customer enquiry where they found our business through a Google search!!! (Very excited about this!) (20mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Thurs 19 Nov

1. Trying to finalise the last couple of issues to determine that the proposed new platform for CRM is viable - still a question or two... bit more of the navigation processes sorted out, though. (4hrs)
2. Invoicing - sent the one that I didn't have an email address for earlier. (5mins)
3. Work on MS Access database for client - gone back to Excel spreadsheet to setup values. I have to let the client know that the survey needs to change for next time - it will then be easier all around. (2hrs 50mins)
4. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Wed 18 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (10mins)
2. Look at the statistics that Google Analytics gives you. 142 visits, a couple of click throughs on google searches, 4 visits from the USA - via Facebook and Google Image search, 37% new visits - good! (15mins)
3. Look at Webmaster tools - need to make a few changes, but no real bad things. (5mins)
4. Trying to finalise the last couple of issues to determine that the proposed new platform for CRM is viable - still a question or two... (4hrs 35mins)
5. Networking - follow up on posts and queries - 2 posts today. (50mins)
6. Work on MS Access database for client - created report manually - not really useful yet, but the start of what is required. (2hrs 55mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Tues 17 Nov

1. Identify and implement a way to fix the broken Facebook Page link on our website. (30mins)
2. Work on MS Access database for client - form is good and fields are correct, but the default report doesn't work due to the number of fields present... (1hr 5mins)
3. Working on the last item required as proof of concept for back end for CRM v3. One part of the process required works, now to add some more structure around it. (6hrs 40mins)

Socialising in the evening - all good!

Today's work on/in the business - Mon 16 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)
2. Invoicing - missed one earlier. (20mins)
3. Follow up on existing customers and prospects. (25mins)
4. Assist with checks to latest website updates. (5mins)
5. Networking - follow up on posts and queries - 2 posts today. (1hr 10mins)
6. Investigate back end for CRM v3. Working on updating absolutely baby, basic, no real functionality prototype for our system - looking good so far - a couple more processes proven.  (4hrs 15mins)
7. Work out how much my partner has been paid since we started as a NEIS business - to keep track of income so that we don't break the limit for how much income you can get outside the business. (10mins)
8. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Sun 15 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)
2. Invoice reconciliation. Unfortunately, no one has paid us since the last time I checked. But my ongoing customer is still chasing her accounts people, so I hope the payment will arrive soon. Prepared a couple of new invoices and sent one - need to chase up an email address for the other customer. (35mins)
3. Record all outstanding items in the accounting system. (25mins)
4. Review the schedule for next week. (25mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Sat 14 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (10mins)
2. Investigate back end for CRM v3. Working on updating absolutely baby, basic, no real functionality prototype for our system - looking good so far.  (5hrs 10mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Fri 13 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)
2. Investigate back end for CRM v3. Do tutorial for this, then absolutely baby, basic, no real functionality prototype for our system - looking good so far.  (8hrs 30mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Thurs 12 Nov

1. Record business emails. (5mins)
2. Follow up on enquiry whether we need professional indemnity insurance as well. Of course it turns out that we do need it - more money! BUT I can't print the PDF form that needs to be filled out... (45mins)
3. Update my Ubuntu virtual machine as preparation to installing the latest potential back end for CRM v3. Actually this is running as a background function for the rest of the day and more, but this is the time dedicated to setting it up. (20mins)
4. Investigate back end for CRM v3. Now looking at something that sits on top of the previous candidate and appears to remove some of the issues I was having - looking good so far.  (8hrs 20mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Wed 11 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (10mins)
2. Respond to a panic message from one of my customers - she deleted a document before having her first coffee of the morning and needed instructions on how she (might) be able to recover it. (35mins)
3. Networking - follow up on posts and queries - 1 post today. (15mins)
4. Investigate back end for CRM v3 - continuing work on the 'working example' I thought I had yesterday. Unfortunately, no success. Tomorrow I probably move to a Ubuntu virtual machine - at least for development.  (5hrs 55mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Tues 10 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)
2. Networking - follow up on posts and queries - 1 post today. (45mins)
3. Send email following up a customer enquiry. Basically requires on site changes which will be scheduled once they have paid for more hours. (15mins)
4. Look at the statistics that Google Analytics gives you. 35 new visits out of a total of 90 since we started tracking, which is good. (A lot of the repeat visits will be us working on the website and reviewing changes). Strangely, the visits include one search each from the UK and the Philippines! (30mins)
5. Create the first version of an MS Access database for a new customer. It's a while since I've worked with Access, so there's some (re)learning involved. Next thing is to check that the fields are still in the right order after I reorganised their default form. (1hr 35mins)
6. Investigate back end for CRM v3 - continuing work on the 'working example' I thought I had yesterday. Unfortunately, it looks pretty but doesn't actually DO anything... not quite right still! I also can't remove the last couple of warnings - if I change to the recommended new process, it says that it doesn't understand it, even though that's how the standard interface works... (2hrs 35mins)

I think it's time to start the tutorial again, but creating skeletons of a couple of our actual forms, and see how far I get. If there is no joy with that, it will be time to install another virtual machine and develop on Linux.

Today's work on/in the business - Mon 9 Nov

1. Assist with website changes - we nearly have the cross-browser issues sorted out now, at least to the point where looking at it in IE doesn't make it look stupid... (5mins)
2. Update record of market survey results. (10mins)
3. Updating competitor analysis. I need to go back and check that I'm comparing apples and apples - I have a nasty feeling that the figures I've just put in for the new competition don't include all the values I've included for the other comparisons - so the rankings I've just plotted are crap! Also put this on the backburner - other things to do first. (1hr 10mins)
4. Send follow up email on enquiry whether we need professional indemnity insurance as well. There has been no response as yet. (10mins)
5. Investigate back end for CRM v3 - looks like this is locked in now! I have a very simple proof of concept version of the first form accessible - not nearly right, but present. I have also got a working version of one of the examples, which gives me most of the structural elements that I need to get a prototype happening. This includes 5 mins at about 12.15am when I worked out what the final issue was. (As well as lots of time spent on the internet working out what all the errors meant and how to fix them - the examples were written with version 3.0 present and I am using 3.4 - they've made a few changes along the way...). There are still a couple of issues to resolve - the example always opens in edit mode and I can't see why at the moment and there are still a couple of warnings about features that are going to be removed in future versions - need to work out what the new process is before I work up my prototype - but it's looking good, which is wonderful! (7hrs 55mins)
6. Site visit to new customer - she seems happy with the plan. (1hr 20mins)
7. Record the outcome of the site visit. (15mins)

So the main really good thing about today is that we seem to have locked down the new platform for the CRM solution. Obviously, there are still a couple of small questions, but it looks as if it's all going to work now! So now I can concentrate on starting the actual conversion of the software, which is great!

Today's work on/in the business - Sat 7 Nov

1. Review the schedule for next week - had to move one operational plan item based on the site visit that I'm doing on Monday afternoon. (20mins)
2. Create clean copy of potential back end for CRM v3. (5mins)
3. Work on the website, particularly allowing access via Google Webmaster Tools as well as reading through the Google information and determining a few things that need to be changed. Changes sent to my partner to work through. (1hr 20mins)
4. Updating competitor analysis with a couple of new ones that I've recently found out about. I think there are a coupld of others that also need to be added, but I'll do that when I find them again - not sure whether more competitors is good or bad... (1hr 55mins)
5. Record a couple more items in the accounting system. (5mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Fri 6 Nov

1. Check the other brochure and the presentations for the typo in the phone number - thankfully, there were no issues! (10mins)
2. Accounting - depreciation figures were entered on the wrong dates... Some other items needed to be entered. (30mins)
3. Review my blog for entries in the operational plan that need to be updated. Found them, updated the operational plan and added the required calendar entries. (45mins)
4. Record times worked in September 2009 after we finished NEIS training. This turned out to only be 8 days, which is disappointing, but before that we were mainly focused on work to create the NEIS business plan, which really doesn't fit with the business hours. (10mins)
5. Invoice reconciliation. Unfortunately, no one has paid us since the last time I checked. But my ongoing customer is still chasing her accounts people, so I hope the payment will arrive soon. (10mins)
6. Follow up on a customer email. Information is required on following up with another entity and there's another question that I'll need to think about further. (15mins)
7. Ensure the log book for our car is up to date - we missed writing a couple of entries down which were repeats of previous entries, but then recorded a couple of readings after that - took a little while to sort out, but it's all up to date now. (30mins)
8. Networking - follow up on posts and queries - 4 posts today. (45mins)
9. Look at the statistics that Google Analytics gives you. Looks good, we're still getting traffic. :-) (10mins)
10. Investigate Google Webmaster Tools. This included reading through a lot of their information and reviewing our website - the review of the website was not entirely thrilling, as it highlighted a couple of issues that appear to have been present in our website since it was originally created. It's not really comforting to realise that NONE of us involved have checked the website in all reasonably available browsers, because one of the issues has been there since the site was originally created. (2hrs 50mins)
11. Phone call and agreement to meeting with new client - Monday we determine what the actual parameters are, which is great! (10mins)
12. Make required changes to the website to remove a lot of the issues with alternative browsers - it's still not perfect, but at least it's not so glaringly wrong! (25mins)
13. Update competitor information, based on further research that has occurred over the last few weeks. Fortunately, the first one is no competition in our target market! (1 hr)
14. Update my record of time worked. (5mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Thurs 5 Nov

1. Update my record of time worked. (10mins)
2. Investigate back end for CRM v3 - continuing to read the documentation for the next candidate. Determined how we can implement licensing and that there are a couple of ways to implement scheduled tasks. (1hr 55mins)
3. Ensure that the initial brochure is ready to send to prospects, with the new logo - including fixing the typo in the office phone number! (10mins)
4. Work on scheduling for projects. (20mins)
5. Create a draft operational plan - now I need to go back through the blog entries and check whether all the regular tasks are in the operational plan. (45mins)
6. Accounting - work out and enter the depreciation figures for October - but I've just realised that they're in for the wrong date... So have to fix that! (30mins)

A bit frustrated today - a short day due to a house inspection by the real estate agents, so final cleaning then waiting for them to turn up. Waiting... waiting... waiting... They gave us a two hour block that they would arrive in - so not even a specific time. When they were an hour overdue from that two hour block, I called. Turns out that they expected us to confirm that we would be available, but the letter says to contact them if you are NOT going to be available - so a huge chunk of the day wasted for nothing. Of course by then I was angry about the whole situation, so couldn't settle into any real work afterwards either! ARGH!

Well, hopefully Friday I'll get some decent work done.

Today's work on/in the business - Wed 4 Nov

1. Send emails to follow up existing prospects. (1hr 30mins)
2. Assist with changes to the website. (20mins)
3. Double check - do we need workcover? No, as a partnership with no external employees, we cannot have workcover. When we employ other people though, we need to take out workcover to cover them. (30mins)
4. Look at the statistics that Google Analytics gives you. (10mins)
5. Networking - follow up on posts and queries - 2 posts today. (1hr 5mins)
6. Record business emails. (15mins)
7. Investigate back end for CRM v3 - continuing to read the documentation for the next candidate. (3hrs 20mins)
8. Networking - face to face. Monthly networking meeting as part of the NEIS support. (3hrs 45mins)

Today's work on/in the business - Tues 3 Nov

1. Look at the statistics that Google Analytics gives you. (15mins)
2. Follow up on the lack of phone call from my latest customer - she did say she was busy. (5mins)
3. Update record of market survey results. (10mins)

Short day because it's a public holiday - so that's allowed!

Today's work on/in the business - Mon 2 Nov

1. Review business plan - particularly tasks planned. There needs to be a new To Do list with items that were included in the business plan. This has now been created in our CRM system. (1hr 20mins)
2. Accounting - record all the initial assets put into the business so that we know what happened in October. (25mins)
3. Investigate back end for CRM v3 - continuing to read the documentation for the next candidate. (20mins)
4. Add the To Dos from our business plan into our CRM system so that they can be tracked. (45mins)
5. Networking - follow up on posts and queries - 2 posts today. (2hrs)
6. Look at the statistics that Google Analytics gives you- proving that the online networking is driving people to our site, which makes THAT worthwhile, as well as from Facebook, majority of traffic from Melbourne, but some from other states as well (probably from networking sites). (20mins)