Software for Business People
We have worked with many large and small businesses in Asia, and increasingly find companies with mixed MAC and PC environments. So we thought you might like to know what software we have recommended to others and what software we have found useful in building our business, one that also relies on a mix of MACs and PCs.
Start with Thinking
Planning forms the basis of any good company, organization or idea for a company. So how do you build out your idea and structure it into a plan that you can share?
We strongly recommend that you learn how to use mindmapping for this purpose. Better yet, do what we did, buy a great mindmapping software package and learn as you’re using it!
We heartily recommend Novamind mindmapping software. We have used it for years now and it keeps getting better. We love the way we can easily have all kinds of colors, and then easily convert the same chart into a staid black and white diagram for the “more traditional” among us. We also love the way it runs across both MACs (it started there) and PCs and the way it can export into project management software. Find out more about Novamind and mindmapping.
Manage the Development
If you’ve done the planning then why not easily track the development as a project using a good project management package. You could use the one you’ll find in so many stores, or you could opt for one that runs only on MACs and provides wide flexibility but is still fairly easy to use. Why not try Merlin project management software, which easily integrates with Novamind (in fact it’s cheaper to buy them together as a package).
Accounting Software for MACs
Have you been searching for accounting software that an accountant will consider acceptable, provides good flexibility and is still fairly simple to use ... and that runs on a MAC? In fact, would you also like to handle VAT/GST and multi-currency for less than hundreds of dollars? Well, search no further. Luca accounting software for MAC is available from Cut Edge Systems. It works; they respond to queries in a timely fashion; and it is cost effective. Check them out here.
To quote the company: “Luca is a full-featured, fully-functional, accrual-based accounting system that runs on OS X. It has the ability to handle real-time double-entry postings and multiple currencies, yet we try to make it very easy to use, so that it will require minimal accounting knowledge to operate. It is designed for small and medium-sized enterprises.”
e-mail Marketing Software
Looking for a good way to market your company or stay in touch with your customers through email? You may be able to manage this process from your email account when you have few customers or a very small mailing, but once you get to regular mailings to more than about 40 companies then you probably want to consider some special software for this purpose. Formerly we paid license fees for our own software running on a PC or server in the office, and had to be concerned about the number of emails sent within a given time (easy to be blocked as potential spammer).
But now it’s easier to go the way of software as a service and use the web. There are several options, but the one we use and that was recommended to us by others who had tried several is the service from Mailchimp. The best is that you can try it for free for awhile, and you can pay for one-off or monthly use.
Your Suggestions
We are looking for software and services that are actually useful for small and medium businesses. If you have experience with some that you would like to recommend then please contact us and we will see about including it in this section in the future. In fact, we will probably turn some of this site into a blog and let you add your own ideas for everyone.