Author: Olly

  • Organised, Finally!

    In this modern fast paced world, its sometimes very easy to find yourself swamped with stuff to do (work and personal) and it can feel very overwhelming and dis-jointed at time, which is what lead me on to find some services/tools that would help me and my businesses become both more organised, and ultimately more efficient.

    KashFlow – Online Accounting!

    One of the main areas of our business that wasn’t performing well was the accounting side of it. We had sage installed on Daves PC, and it was fine for a while but if i needed to issue an invoice, i had to get Dave to do it. Its also a huge program and we were probably using 10% of it.

    It just didn’t suit our business.

    So we browsed the web, and found a product called KashFlow – and we have never looked back!

    Its hosted on their servers, so no issues if your servers go down or whatever, it contains a full quoting, invoicing and purchasing system that allows you to easily be your own bookkeeper! So that’s a saving straight away!

    It also ties directly in with the VAT man, so one click and you can publish the info directly to the VAT office, no messing about!

    It also fits in with how we work SO much better…

    Try it for yourself!

    WHMCS – Hosting Automation!

    For years and years and years we have hosted peoples websites, and spending time chasing payments of £60/£120 once a year from the millions of customers we have is not only an admin nightmare, but also a pain in the bum!

    We looked about at a few packages that integrated with WHM (our hosting software) and WHMCS was found to be the best, by far!

    It pulls all existing accounts from your server, and you can set pricing and renewal dates so it automatically emails people an invoice when it is due.

    It also integrates with KashFlow which is pretty damm awesome!

    Try it for yourself!

    Google Mail, Docs and Calendar

    We’ve used these services for quite a while, but now ALL our documents, emails and calendar entries are stored “on the cloud”. We have totally bitten the bullet and now store all our spreadsheets, word docs and any other form of document on the Google servers.

    We decided it was more likely to be our servers that had an issue, not Google’s – also the sharing options of the documents are amazing. If i shared a document with you, i could edit it at the same time you had it open, and you would see it appear in front of your eyes.

    It makes collaborating on documents so much more efficient as you don’t end up with duplicates etc.

    The mail is also super reliable, compatible with all modern smart phones and just, well, works!

    We also schedule meetings on each others calendars, which automatically sync with our smartphones as well.

    From a more personal angle, i use a Google Spreadsheet as my “To-do” list, as i can open it on any PC and its always 100% up to date, i can access it via the Docs app on my phone, and my business partner can also add things to it if he needs me to do them – its a great (very simple) way of staying on top of your workload!

    Try it for yourself!

    These tools have made an incredible difference to both my own productivity, but also the efficiency of our company.

    And an efficient, organised company, is a more profitable one 🙂

     

     

  • Seeing more of the world

    Gemma and I love travelling – its definitely our favorite thing to do! Our latest trip was to the coast of Alicante in Spain, and as per our other holidays i figured i would do a little report and recommend the place we went and services we used.

    We normally fly with EasyJet, but recently they have gone shit and stopped flying from the airports near me – so this time we opted for RyanAir and despite the planes being scruffy (they didn’t clean the floors between flights) it was exactly what you expect – cheap and cheerful!

    They did a good job of getting us there and back in one piece, and on time too – the cabin crew (or “salesmen” as i like to cal them) were great but you get a bit sick of them CONSTANTLY trying to sell you shit from the second you take off to the second you land. I’m gonna pretend I’m asleep next time! 🙂

    In regards flights tho, you get what you pay for – i didn’t expect anything more than what we got! Had a wing isle on the way back which meant lots of legroom and as the flight was only about 2 hours it seemed to be over quickly enough 🙂

    Once we landed we were taken to a car hire depot where our car was waiting for us – a 1.2 brand new Nissan Micra in black. the company was called Drivalia Car Rental, and they were literally 5 ins from alicante airport. The lady was lovely, the car was brand new and awesome (and upgraded from the bottom class to the next one up as they had run out of group A cars! :)) – we do think they put on an extra insurance charge as we Had bought something when we signed up for it – but it was still cost effective, full tank of juice and a spanking clean car so we let it slide!

    It was my first experience driving a left hand drive car, on the wrong side of the road! At first it was a SPIN OUT, but after a few hours i was used to it (well, apart from pedestrian crossings!) and the only real part of driving abroad (well in Spain anyway) is the mopeds! There is always 2 people on then, helmets but shorts and tshirts – and they squeeze through any gap they can find!

    The hotel was very easy to find, it was one of the first left hand turns off the main road to alicante, once the main road was running along side the coast. We got settled in to our (freely upgraded to a family sized room from a double) room quickly and headed out to get some food and drinks for the apartment.

    We stayed at Alicante Hills Apartments, and they were bang on – our room was massive, we had 2 bathrooms and could have slept 6 people in it if we wanted! It had a pool, jacuzzis, a restaurant (which was VERY reasonably priced!) and you had air con and a TV in the rooms etc – everything you need.

    My onyl gripe with the apartment was there was a spot of crap splattered on the wall when we got there, and the cleaners missed it all week and it was still there when we left – i think the place was clean, but mainly because its so new – if they are not careful they will star slipping if the cleaners are not more concise. Also above the oven was a drawer, that got VERY hot when using the oven – badly planned out kitchen methinks!

    Apart from that, the apartment served its purpose, we even went back to the hotel towards the end of the last day, after we had checked out and driven down to Santa Pola and Torrevieja and back again – just so i could have a swim and a shower! 🙂

    Alicante itself is a nice place, but we did notice a lot of closed down and derelict buildings – the recession is obvious! It was more obvious the further out of central alicante, lots of random derelict buildings and villas along the N-332 – a shame really as many of the buildings that were screwed looked like they were beautiful at one point.

    We will visit spain again, but we’re not bothered about staying in alicante again.

    • Flights 7/10
    • Car Hire 8/10
    • Apartments 8/10
    • Value for Money 10/10

    We’re off to Gran Canaria next i think – cant wait woo!

  • The Devils in the Detail…

    We’re been mucking about with various motorcycle related web shops, but to be honest despite getting great results with our single product sites – we had a nightmare managing things, so we decided to put all our eggs in one basket and attack things properly.

    Introducting, Moto666!

    Our aim is to have as many product lines from as many brands as physically possible. We want to become the latest and greatest motorcycle accessory store online! Thanks to our awesome contacts in the industry, our experience and knowledge of everything online – we are sure to make a dent in the motorcycle parts and accessories trade in the UK and Europe.

    We have started off on the right foot, all product options are properly thought through and all shipping has been researched to be the best price for the UK and Europe – we’ve applied a level of detail to this site already that we have never been able to do before.

    If you are after a helmet, paddock stand, indicators or anything else for you motorcycle – if we aint got it we can get it, so call now!

  • Been there done that…

    It sometimes feels like ive been doing this internet stuff for far too long now. I remember being 13 and creating skins for mIRC, and making websites with frames using a very old version of Macromedia Dreamweaver.

    Its all changed so much since then, the speed of the net, the quality of the websites, the amount of websites…

    Even what the internet is used for has changed.

    Back in the day people didnt even trust Amazon when buying online – now they will put their details in any site that wears a padlock despite it potentially being dodgy.

    The pace in which the internet has grown has increased massivly since social networking websites started to crop up, and websites like YouTube mean that you can stream videos and music, instantly, and totally free.

    I often wonder what the internet will become as technology and peoples ideas continue to grow.

    Its all crazy shit really.