When you ditch your commute and settle into your home office, life changes for the better. Lets take a look at the benefits of working remote.

No more commuting!

This means you get to save time, money, and energy. The time you would usually spend commuting to the office can be replaced with sleep or quality time with family. Don’t feel like showering right away? Freshen up and work in your pj’s.

Better Breaks

Now that you’re home during your break, you can easily step outside and get some fresh air.  Suddenly you can do all kinds of things that you could never do at the office:

• exercise
• power nap
• run an errand
• make a healthy lunch
• walk your dog!

A work-from-home break helps you recharge in ways an office break can’t, which can lead to a healthier lifestyle and enhanced productivity.

Saving Money

We spend way too much money commuting back and forth to work. Think about how much you spend on work clothes, lunch, coffee, snacks, etc. Working from home means you save thousands of dollars on work-related expenses every year.

Work From Anywhere

You’re no longer tied to an office, so why not work from anywhere with an internet connection?  There are so many great co-working spaces, coffee shops, and public parks with fantastic views, and many of them have wifi & power outlets!

Less Distractions & More Productivity

When you work from home, office gossip, interruptions, and unscheduled meetings are a thing of the past.  Distance from the office means more time to focus on what you’re doing.

Stay Connected: Collaborate In A Virtual Workspace

Aside from all the benefits of working remote, it’s important to find an online workspace that keeps your team in sync. A good workspace utility will help keep your team’s information from ending up in a silo.

Popular Tools

Here are a few google search keywords that may help you find the right service for your needs.

• Content Management
• File Sharing
• Project Management
• Human Resource 
• Customer Relationship Management
• Chat
• Video Conferencing

Several services offer a free trial.  Try out a few until you find one that suits your needs!

Now more than ever, it’s really difficult to hire great talent in the tech industry. It’s a seller’s market with jobs-a-plenty, which means your company’s brand name won’t be enough to reel them in (unless of course you’re Apple or Google).


How To Improve Your Chances

So how *do* you attract top talent? In your job listing, try highlighting  the challenges they’ll face and how they’ll shape the future by working at your company.  Talk about the perks, the office culture, and how often they’ll get to work from home.  Give them a vision of what their life will look like two years from now.  If you’re successful, you’ll snag someone who truly believes in that vision.


The Market Is In Their Favor

Today’s tech creatives, junior developers, and senior engineers are among the most sought after professionals in the world. This affords them the opportunity to be incredibly selective with job opportunities, since most qualified candidates often have multiple offers from interested employers.


The Bait

Of course, not all techies are alike.  Come up with an angle that you believe will attract the right type of personality.  The following tips could help you snag someone great.

1. Indicate your willingness to explore a telecommute relationship.  Since many top-tier techies refuse to commute to an office, you’ll get more bites.

2. Techies get excited about noble causes and big ideas. Explain how working at your company will make a difference.

3. Many techies enjoy collaboration and friendly team vibes (anti corporate). Highlight how your company distinguishes itself from the pack, and how the ideal candidate fits in with your company culture.

4. Highlight which processes & project collaboration software they’ll be required to use on the job.  In many cases, these points will be a driving factor in whether or not a candidate commits to your company.

5. If your job listing has any of the following bullets, you’re signaling to tech professionals that you simply do not understand them:

• Background Check
• Credit Check
• Drug Tests
• On-site Only
• No side projects allowed.

Think Of It Like A Pitch

Understand your target market, be natural, and tell them how awesome you are. No one wants to work for the Borg.  

I came across SpeakPipe last night, thanks to a recommendation from a great blog post via @JosephBushnell. This app lets you place a widget with a custom message on your website so visitors can leave you voicemails.

How it works

Just hit record, leave a message, and approve it before sending. Your visitors don’t need an account to send you messages, and you can reply directly to keep the conversation going.

Potential

This widget also collects names and email addresses (optional). You can adjust these options in your settings to make it a required field. Depending on your goals and creativity the potential is endless.

• Lead Generation
• Contests
• Feedback
• Q & A
• Customer Support

I have a feeling marketers are going to love this app. Its a great way to listen to your customers and find out what they think of your brand.

Easy Setup

It’s free and super easy to setup,  just copy and paste the html to your website. You can also make a tab on your Facebook page without any code. See it in action here.

I knew it!  You’re not alone, I have a love/hate relationship with them too.  You really don’t want to use Google as much as you do, but any professional will admit to the value of their services, which in many cases are must-haves. Here’s my “list of shame” - all the Google tools I use on a regular basis:

1. Search
2. Gmail
3. Reader :(
4. Analytics
5. G+
6. You Tube
7. Keyword Tool
8. Trending
9. I was using Drive ( now I use Crocagile )
10. Authorship
11. …

The Push

The reason most of us can’t break away from Google is because so many of their services cross-pollinate. Their SEO guidelines go hand-in-hand with Google+, Google Author, and Google Analytics. If you don’t drink the cool-aid, you risk getting left behind. So instead of fighting against the tide, I decided to take the plunge into the service I’ve been avoiding most: G+.

The Upside

• The engagement is quite amazing, especially in the communities. The people there are eager to learn and share their expertise.
• The content is actually compelling.
• The communities are great for finding like-minded individuals who engage in similar interests.
• It’s really easy to find communities for any subject, or create your own.
• It has many great features that promote business and personal growth.

The Downside

The more time you spend on G+, the less time you’ll spend on other networks.  If you aren’t careful you’ll end up abandoning your followers.  You’ve been warned :)


Bonus Analytics

I was surprised to discover a nice boost in network referrals from G+. An increase in website traffic was also generated from shared G+ content. What’s even more interesting is that most of our new website traffic came through the flow of conversation, from other G+ users who reviewed my personal and business profiles.  That doesn’t happen as much on Twitter, where profile-viewing is limited and succinct. 

IMHO, there’s a beautiful process to bootstrapping which allows you to grow organically. You’re so passionate about your new endeavor you’re willing to invest in yourself. You know it’s not moving forward unless YOU do.

I’ve found it valuable to brainstorm, plan, process, execute, play, process, and tweak. It takes time for anything to mature, sometimes ideas don’t play out the way you hoped. You need to eat your own dog food to see if it tastes good and maybe change ingredients to make it better. Investment can interrupt this process with different goals, pushing the extras aside, which could be the differentiator.

At the end of the day you want to produce something people will enjoy, find useful, and hopefully better their lives. If you can bootstrap, do. Or find a like-minded investor who respects your creative process.

Forget the past and future, live in the moment.

My name is Shayn Baron and I’m addicted to my startup. I go to bed excited about Crocagile. I wake up excited about Crocagile. Throughout the day and most nights, I work within Crocagile (eating my own dog food). When it’s my day off, I find myself working anyway.

Some nights, It’s difficult to sleep because ideas constantly pop into my head. If I fight them, I end up tossing and turning, unable to “shut down”. The morning comes and I feel as though I haven’t slept. I’ve learned if I jump out of bed and record my thoughts, It puts my mind at ease and I can finally rest. So in some sick way, feeding my addiction helps me sleep better at night.

At times, I feel guilty because I know I haven’t spent nearly enough time with family, friends, the house, and a plethora of other things. Then I remind myself that this phase of our startup is only temporary, and soon we’ll hire more believers to share the load. For now, I need to feed the beast