Moments of Clarity

Houses with Dual Incomes

I had a conversation with a buddy yesterday about the usual range of dude topics over a beer like politics, taxes, sports, and the economy.

So when we touched on taxes he mentioned how expensive day care and day camp programs are over the summer and how his wife's paycheck goes mostly out the door to fund those things.

It hit me at that point that we're now 6 years into a single income household and the concept of additional revenues entering our coffers would truly feel a bit like the lottery. 

We'll have both kiddos in elementary school by fall of 2010 so look out after that. It's on.

Teaching is the hardest profession

So as a teacher, you have to balance all kinds of things.  Most challenging for me in my limited role as an occasional teacher in online findability, multimedia, etc...is pacing the learning when classes have both novices with limited Internet experience...to hungry journeymen who've dabbled and thirst more...and everything in between.

I get what teachers must go through all the time when they have very mixed and diverse classes.  If you go too fast, you leave people behind or leave them scratching their heads.  Too slow, and people are bored.

I'm not certain that personality can pull you through all of these times where you must address each portion of the curve when working with adults in a classroom setting.

Any advice out there? 

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Become Findable on the Web Class In Des Moines - Spring Edition - Starts April 22

We're back at it again folks beginning April 22 for my "Become Findable on the Web" class.  You can register online through the Des Moines Community Education site.

This class is OFFICIALLY being offered at Impromptu Studio which the class really liked the last session.  It's a much better environment than an old classroom. 

As always, DSM is only charging $50 for this session! What a deal.

The details are below.  Please if you're wondering how to become findable on the web, for your business or personal brand...it's well worth the $50.  Also ALL of the class members are part of an online collaboration workspace (call it a community) where we share ideas and concepts with each for as long as you want to play.  Fair deal?  I think so.  I would love to see you and your friends there. 

Become Findable on the Web 4 Wks $50

Blogging can be the most effective and affordable form of business marketing. Taught by Doug Mitchell, a successful technology entrepreneur, this class will provide an action-packed workshop-style class. Students will learn to search for, subscribe to, create, and effectively write blogs while gaining a clear understanding of available technologies, most of which are simple and low cost (if not free). Most importantly, students will understand how business blogging can translate into more loyal customers and enhanced 'findability' on the web. The class will include numerous professional-blogger guest speakers from around the Metro. Instr: Mitchell

B016301 Impromptu Studio Wed April 22 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

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Blogging for Business West Des Moines Class I

West Des Moines has delivered some amazing new talent to my class!  We're trying a compressed 2 week class format to see how that works and so far so good. 

I'm working on a 201 and 301 level class as we speak so we may have Finability University in Des Moines soon.

Thanks class and thank you West Des Moines for giving me the opportunity to teach.

Absenteeism due to discombobulated neuropathways

I got a call about a week ago, "Can we put Mac's World Live" on daily from the Studio at Impromptu Studio? (our new digs downtown with video and audio studio, etc.)

Ummm...sure.  So we've been powering a daily "radio" show that we need to stream live with audio and video, record for podcast distribution, play commercials and music while on air, etc.  The software and hardware settings alone required to pull this off (since we don't have computers and such just sitting around already dialed in for this) are enough to drive you batty.  Our laptops would have to fly in daily for their appearances and we'd have to recapture the same settings from the day before.  However, things never seem "exactly" the same twice.

So we've managed to do it with minor glitches...but we're very pleased to have immersed ourselves in this world for a while to understand what it takes to produce a "live show" and remove the need for post-production editing, even though it was a trial by fire. 

It's fascinating how much stuff you CAN figure out and how cheap technology is these days.  If you remove the AM or FM signal from the equation (those aren't very expensive outside of major markets either), you can do what we're doing with 2 computers and some audio equipment.  We'll probably create a mini case studio for this over at createWOWmedia just to capture our thoughts and debrief a bit.

All of this has spun Media Maestro Paul and I for a loop and thus very little posting activity.  I'd like to add a special thanks to Steve from Student Pros Consulting who has stepped up...stepped in...and become a great audio engineer and all around recording and producing expert in about 24 hours.

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Become Findable on the Web - Class 2

Things just keep getting better.  Now that we're having class at Impromptu Studio, we're delivering real life connected examples with an Internet Connection (I know how revolutionary!).  Roosevelt essentially has no Internet so slides and talk have become working examples.

I'm learning that the concept of RSS is best described by video and by action and NOT me trying to explain it. 

I've also learned that it's great to have other participants like Daniel Shipton in the room to gain new perspective and to freshen my examples. 

I'm loving this class and I plan on offering it again in the Spring!

RAGBRAI 2009

Image via WikipediaThere's a wonderful phenomena here in the Des Moines, Iowa metro area, and that's......ACCESS.  I feel so connected to things that were once "out there" like politicians, news personalities, business leaders, and community leaders.  It's really a gift that probably seems "normal" to Iowa natives. But to my Southern CA born and raised brain where LA was a foreign country 50 miles west, it's a real treat.

Well, there's this wonderful event that happens annually here called RAGBRAI.  It's basically an amalgamation of 15,000 of your closest friends who ride together about 450 miles across the state of Iowa in the middle of the summer.  Yeah, I know...something must be poisoning the corn.  But really, RAGBRAI is an amazing time of connection between Iowans and international visitors from all over the world. 

I'm planning a very big team experience this year as we roll across this beautiful state, share stories, and connect with wonderful rural and not so rural communities across the state.

Keep in tune with my blog for updates but this is going to be big.   Just imagine for now the greatest grass roots event in the history of the state.  OK, back to work.

Next class offering - Becoming Findable on the Web

OK so we renamed my Blogging for Business class offered through the Des Moines Community Education system to see if it change response rates.  Here's the description:

Become Findable on the Web 4 Wks $50

Blogging can be the most effective and affordable form of business marketing. Taught by Doug Mitchell, a successful technology entrepreneur, this class will provide an action-packed workshop-style class. Students will learn to search for, subscribe to, create, and effectively write blogs while gaining a clear understanding of available technologies, most of which are simple and low cost (if not free). Most importantly, students will understand how business blogging can translate into more loyal customers and enhanced 'findability' on the web. The class will include numerous professional-blogger guest speakers from around the metro. Instr: Mitchell

B016201 Roosevelt-107 Wed January 14 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

I hope YOU can join us for a great class that enriches knowledge through robust QA and fun real world examples.

You can register ONLINE or via other methods by clicking on the link below:

http://www.dmps-adulted.org/register.html

Questions?  Let me know!

Those wacky Germans are at it again

So apparently the publishers of a German dictionary company have voted on the best new made up words this year.  The winner:

Gammelfleishparty or "spoiled meat party".  Pleasant.

Here's a quote

Judges chose "gammelfleischparty", or "spoiled meat party," — an unflattering term for a gathering of people over 30 — as the "youth word of the year 2008." The word "gammelfleisch" was in the news frequently during the year when it was discovered that meat packers had been regularly supplying some kebab restaurants with past-due products.

I'm not sure what else to say here.

Do I need the small biz accounting silver bullet or outsourced book keeping?

I've been ranting back and forth on twitter about my accounting system trauma.  For the last year I've been trying out new systems since my transaction volume is low, my needs are typical, and my main goal is 99% automation.

I was on Quickbooks for windows.  Powerful but not web based which I prefer now.  Oh there is a version of Quickbooks for the web you say....BUT NOT FOR MAC! What????  How difficult must it be to create a Mac friendly version of a web based accounting app?  Oh yeah, there are tons of other options so Quickbooks loses.

Here's the deal, there are a million great applications out there with specific goals.

1. Mint
2. Wesabe
3. LessAccounting
4. Freshbooks

But all of them do 80% of the equation.  The ones that do a GREAT job (Mint) of automating and auto updating bank data aren't really geared towards business and thus don't really do invoicing.

Those that do invoicing still don't seem to have the ability to auto-import expenses from a credit card or otherwise. 

People are on there (like me) requesting this functionality but it seems that this is something that "everyone takes note of and will get to eventually". 

Well I'm here to say, if any ONE of you get to the point where you have a web based small biz/entrepreneur oriented accounting application that has ultimate automation and invoicing and expense management wrapped up into one package, I know a boatload of people who'll migrate instantly.

So if I'm paying $14-$30/month for this service and I'm disappointed and left with say 2 hours a month of accounting work, could I get an outsourced bookkeeper/virtual assistant to make my life whole for $100 month?  $200?  I don't know. 

If this was simply handled by someone else (ie THEY got the expenses from paypal, bank, amex) and uploaded/reconciled and i just billed people (that part is fun anyway) could I streamline this process and be happy about accounting again?

Help.

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