Happy Indie-preneur Day! 7 Sparky Tools to Help you Celebrate your Independence
Indie.
It’s everybody’s favorite power-to-the-people word, especially when you check out the dictionary definition and discover its intrinsically American qualities: free from external control and constraint; “an independent mind”; “a series of independent judgments”; “fiercely independent individualism.
All of which translates so smoothly into a star-spangled new word: Indie-Preneur. Being an entrepreneur is so last century.
On this pivotal Independence Day 2011, it’s time we re-defined ourselves with a word that better represents the burgeoning world of plucky, passionate, indie-innovators who are busily working to rebuild our country. Our chances of rebounding may be vastly increased by honoring — not resisting — today’s fluctuating and increasingly independent workscape. Indeed, Indie ‘tude celebrates all that made the U.S.A. revolutionary 235 years ago.
An Indie-preneur may be working solo, as part of a team, small business, non-profit or even work fearlessly within a giant organization. Indie-preneurism is a state of mind; a style of being; a scrappy, bootstrapping never-say-die way of life. Indie-ism is finding new solutions to pressing old problems by honoring our inner quirks and creativity; that eccentricity that provokes us to see things in a different way. Indie can scale big or stay small. There is no hard and fast definition of Indie. (Except this: note the word: ‘fiercely’ above.)
And no, Indie is not a synonym for maverick. (But it is a synonym for Gigster)
Here’s the Third Annual Indie-Preneur Award, which goes to: Taryn Voget, CEO/Founder of The Everyday Genius Institute. Here’s why:
Not much more than a year ago, Taryn, along with noted Behavioral Scientist Tim Hallbom, kicked off the Everyday Genius Institute product line with the promise: With the right strategies, anyone can become a genius.
Now, thanks to Taryn’s blood, sweat and indie-perseverance, the Everyday Genius Institute’s “Study Smarter, Not Harder” DVD has landed in retail powerhouse OfficeMax — and will soon be in Staples, Barnes & Nobles and more.
What just goes to prove what smart start-ups know — you don’t need a crammed org-chart to make things happen. You just need one fierce, fire-in-the-belly Founder –like Taryn Voget.
Not surprisingly, Indie-Preneurs are fervent do-it-yourselfers. Here are 7 easy online tools to help you celebrate your independence:
Do It Yourself Logo Design: Logoyes.com LogoYes offers do-it-yourself logos to small businesses around the world. Guru’s Note: Logoyes is simple, fun, and even if not the perfect customized logo for which you’d pay thousands, it’ll do in a pinch. Consider it market research and explore colors, fonts and symbols.
Or tap into a world of talented graphic designers for bargain prices starting at $275. I’ve had great success with LogoTournament, especially with the logo for popular music tech blogger RedSaid. Here’s what they say: Get the logo that you really want by choosing from 50-200+ custom designs, instead of settling on a design from a handful of options that a traditional design firm provides. See your first company logos within hours, not weeks. Guru’s note: Clients sometimes come to me wondering if they should hire me to do a whole Name Generation project when they already have a name they think might work. I suggest they check it out on Logo Tournament by unleashing their name and creative brief on the site’s zillions of gifted designers. If the potential name communicates what they want it to, then they should move ahead on their preferred name. If not, I’m here to help.
Did you drool over that shimmering new box of crayolas every fall? Then prepare. Once you enter this site, you’ll be lost in color lust for hours. Colourlovers.com calls itself an international creative community that helps people discover their inner designer. There are now 656,197 COLOURlovers around the world who have created 4,012,636 Colors, 1,647,242 Palettes and 1,617,245 Patterns. (Including quite a few of mine) Guru’s Note: This site is a powerful brainstorming tool. During my Lab360s, each participant creates colors and names for whatever product we’re focusing on that day. Sparks the imagination! Also a valuable tool for banishing writer’s block.
More great ColourLovers news: The company recently raised $1 million from investors including Atlas Venture, Morado Ventures, Founder Collective, Charles River Ventures, 500 Startups, Seraph Group & Zelkova Ventures, Matt Mullenweg, Alexis Ohanian, Don Hutchinson, Dharmesh Shah, Jared Friedman, and Shawn Bercuson.
And even better, COLOURlovers used the indie-preneur’s best friend –Angel List — to build the round.
Got new website? Get new feedback. Launchly showcases new websites to an audience to help site owners get the attention and feedback necessary to succeed. Launchly’s big plus: instead of just showcasing a startup and letting it fall by the wayside, Launchly allows apps to resubmit new iterations and build on their ideas. Guru’s Note: Yes, Ms. Website Owner, you do need Feedback– and from more than just the peeps you drink with and their cousins-in-law. Website/app development very quickly becomes a myopic process — a site like Launchly is very reasonably priced ‘insurance’ in a world of fickle marketplaces and even fickler users.
Another smart way to test your site is a user experience tool called Userlytics that market research pros like me have been fantasizing about for years. Here’s the description: With Userlytics you can capture videos of participants’ screen navigation, spoken remarks and facial expressions – right from their home or workplace, within days, even hours. And even better, Userlytics offers a free study so you can test the service.
Small Business meets Big Government: SBA.gov is a web portal operated jointly by 22 different federal agencies — a kind of one-stop-resource for small businesses. With links to federal programs, links for various rules, regulations and laws, state-specific and industry-specific links, it’s just what we Indies need to stay within the lines, at least occasionally. Guru’s Note: My favorite part of this upgraded site is the new Startup America section, which delivers everything you need to know about this White House initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. The White House has enlisted Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL, and Carl Schramm, who runs a group that encourages entrepreneurship called the Kaufman Foundation, to head the “Startup America Partnership.” They’re leading a privately funded board that will encourage large companies and foundations to provide seed money to start-ups. Follow the action on Twitter.
And then there’s the Patron Saint of the Indie-Preneur: TED. “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world” from the landmark conferences have now been translated into 51 languages and counting. After the fireworks this weekend, set off a few more by tuning in to TED.
Now go out and set off some fireworks of your own.
Happy Indie-Preneur Day! 7 Tools To Help You Celebrate Your Independence.
Indie.
It’s everybody’s favorite power-to-the-people word, especially when you check out the dictionary definition and discover its intrinsically American qualities: free from external control and constraint; “an independent mind”; “a series of independent judgments”; “fiercely independent individualism.
All of which translates so smoothly into a star-spangled new word: Indie-Preneur. Being an entrepreneur is so last century.
On this pivotal Independence Day 2009, it’s time we re-defined ourselves with a word that better represents the burgeoning world of plucky, passionate, indie-innovators who are busily working to rebuild our country. Our chances of rebounding may be vastly increased by honoring — not resisting — today’s fluctuating and increasingly independent workscape. Indeed, Indie ‘tude celebrates all that made the U.S.A. revolutionary 233 years ago.
An Indie-preneur may be working solo, as part of a team, small business, non-profit or even work fearlessly within a giant organization. Indie-preneurism is a state of mind; a style of being; a scrappy, bootstrapping never-say-die way of life. Indie-ism is finding new solutions to pressing old problems by honoring our inner quirks and creativity; that eccentricity that provokes us to see things in a different way. Indie can scale big or stay small. There is no hard and fast definition of Indie. (Except this: note the word: ‘fiercely’ above.)
And no, Indie is not a synonym for maverick.
Here’s the First Annual Indie-Preneur of the Week Award, which goes to:Socialbees. Here’s why:
Argg! I hate when that happens: When Facebook abruptly changed the Vanity URL requirements to a 100 fan minimum to claim Fan Page names, small business owners who had expected to nab their URL with just 25 fans were flummoxed. Then Facebook-savvy Socialbees came up with a brilliantly viral solution: A Fan Page Chat. Encouraged by Socialbees’ networking pro, Hazel Grace Dircksen, these chatters went beyond chatting and ‘fanned’ each other. I don’t have stats on how many of these Fan Pages jumped to the required 100 as a result of Socialbees’ small business smarts or how many valuable business connections were made that night –but it’s good example of how Indie-Preneurs can rock the rules and win.
Not surprisingly, Indie-Preneurs are fervent do-it-yourselfers. Here are 7 easy online tools to help you celebrate your independence:
Do It Yourself Logo Design: Logoyes.com LogoYes is the leading provider of do-it-yourself logos and other premium design products to small businesses around the world. Guru’s Note: Logoyes is simple, fun, and even if not the perfect customized logo for which you’d pay thousands, it’ll do in a pinch. Consider it market research and explore colors, fonts and symbols.
Did you drool over that shimmering new box of crayolas every fall? Then prepare. Once you enter this site, you’ll be lost in color lust for hours. Colourlovers.com calls itself a resource that monitors and influences color trends. Check out color palettes, read color related articles and interviews. Guru’s Note: This site is a powerful brainstorming tool. During my Lab360s, each participant creates colors and names for whatever product we’re focusing on that day. Sparks the imagination! Also a valuable tool for banishing writer’s block.
Got new website? Get new feedback. Just launched itself, Launchlyshowcases new websites to an audience to help site owners get the attention and feedback necessary to succeed. Launchly’s big plus: instead of just showcasing a startup and letting it fall by the wayside, Launchly allows apps to resubmit new iterations and build on their ideas. Guru’s Note: Yes, Ms. Website Owner, you do need Feedback– and from more than just the peeps you drink with and their cousins-in-law. Website/app development very quickly becomes a myopic process — a site like Launchly is very reasonably priced ‘insurance’ in a world of fickle marketplaces and even fickler (?) users.
My social-media-genius pal Janet Fouts tested the hot new app Evernote: Always on the lookout for a new app, I couldn’t help but take a look. This, my friends, is a very cool app. In a nutshell, Evernote lets you add information to a database that is accessible through the web, a desktop app, and your iPhone, Blackberry or smart phone. Items are tag-able and fully search-able so you can add pretty much anything, run a search, and quickly find it again wherever you are. Now when I say you can upload things, try to visualize this. You’re at a networking event and you suck at remembering names. With Evernote you can take a picture of a person with your phone, tag them with their name and they’re saved for future reference in your database. Even more interesting, include their name badge in the snapshot, even a handwritten name tag, and evernote will recognize the handwriting and enter it as searchable text!
Small Business meets Big Government: Business.gov is a web portal operated jointly by 22 different federal agencies — a kind of one-stop-resource for small businesses. With links to federal programs, links for various rules, regulations and laws, state-specific and industry-specific links, it’s just what we Indies need to stay within the lines, at least occasionally.
And then there’s the Patron Saint of the Indie-Preneur: TED. “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world” from the landmark conferences have now been translated into 51 languages and counting. After the fireworks this weekend, set off a few more by tuning in to TED.
Thanks to Mashable for the heads-up on Launchly.
Sun & Surf? There’s An App for That: Top Twelve List of Summer iPhone Apps.
Summer’s just a balmy breeze away. So get your iPhone into shape with this Top Twelve List of iPhone Summer Apps.
That Beach Channel
While you’re waiting for those beaches to warm up, escape to the tropics with this app for around $2. Zip off to ten balmy beaches from Maui, St Thomas, Fiji, Oregon Coast, Cancun and St John. Each 2-minute HD video features the soothing sound of waves. This is your getaway until you can getaway.
Packing Pro
Are you a packing klutz like I am? After all these years of world-wide travel, you’d think I’d get it. I can even muck up a simple weekend getaway With Packing Pro you get simplified organization, preparation and packing suggestions, as well as the ability to customize a checklist for successful travel.
Lose It!
Not quite ready for bikini weather? This free user-friendly calorie-counting apps helps you figure what your daily calorie intake should be. You input your age, height, gender and current weight then choose your goal weight; Lose It tells you how many calories you can eat (or drink!) each day to meet this weight loss goal. Then the fun begins. Lose It has a large database of foods, including brand name foods like Chef Boyardee (ZOMG, is he still around?) and Coca-Cola.
Pocket Cocktails (Currently on sale for $0.99)
Speaking of empty calories, here’s a cool app that lets you browse for recipes (Sex on the Beach anyone? Tequila Sunrise?) and inspire you to create your favorite cocktails. Pocket Cocktails is organized by 8 different categories: martinis, classics, summer, tropical, creamy, shooters, warmers, and mocktails (for the kiddies). Each category shows an alphabetized list of drinks complete with photos, recipe and ingredient list. Pocket Cocktails stands out among the rest because of it’s beautiful photos.
Also check out:iVideo Cocktails: Watch it, Shake It, Drink it! (on sale $1.99)
ABC Animals
Once Mom and Dad are relaxing with their Harvey Wallbangers, it may be a good idea to give the kidlets a happy distraction. ABC Animals by Critical Matter is a friendly, intuitive educational app aimed at teaching letter recognition and sound to preschoolers through flashcard simulation. All twenty-six letters of the alphabet, accompanied by corresponding animal pictures, are represented.
SymptomMD
Along with summer fun comes stuff like mysterious rashes, weird bumps, sunburns, cuts, sprains and bug bites. At least you think that’s what they are. How do you know when to hightail it to the ER or doctor’s office — or simply ice it? The answers may be in this nifty app called SymptomMD by Self Care Decisions, LLC. Designed to help make educated decisions towards the type of care needed for relief of an illness or injury, SymptomMD could be a time and money saver, and maybe even a true life-saver. Simply select a symptom — and you’ll receive a list with advice which can range from Call 911 now to Self Care at Home.
AAA Discounts
Smart AAA members already know they can save a bundle on towing and jump starts by joining. But what members may not realize is how many other discounts are available — rental cars, hotel rooms, theater tickets. Launch this free AAA Discounts and the app asks to use your location and then pops up a map pinned with AAA member companies within the surrounding area. Tap a pin and you’ll get a description of the member company, the discounts it offers and driving directions to get there. AAA says it saves its members about $100 a year.
Tipulator
Does anybody know how to calculate a tip anymore? Why bother your pretty little head with it now that there’s Tipulator? While there are other tip calculators for free, Tipulator is simply nicer to use. Using your local currency (dollars, pounds or euros) it will calculate the tip according your requested percentage and even split the check.
Babelingo
If you’re anything like me — my French only seems to work in random parts of Italy — you may be interested in this on-the-spot-translator app by Alta Vida called Babelingo. With 11 different languages, Babelingo is great for the true globe trotter who needs some help with the basics: Conversation, Time, Getting Around, Money, Eating Out, Medical, and Lodging. Each category has about thirty words or phrases and some even feature a few sub-categories with additional words and phrases.
TED
Even though I’m ticked at the TED Conference for leaving its longtime home in Monterey, I’ll stand by this inspiring free app as a great way to not only preserve your soon-to-be-summer-addled braincells — but actually teach you stuff that matters. TED started in 1984 as a way to bring together thought leaders to talk about technology, entertainment and design. Since then, the uber-pricey TED has branched out, featuring a community of big-idea’d luminaries in a range of fields from science to arts, culture, business and global issues. This app lists 293 videos, with talks limited to 18 minutes.
Mobile Dating For Sexy Singles
Once you’ve put the Lose It app to good use, it may be time to download this Mobile Dating For Sexy Singles. This app for 18+ puts ‘Love on your iPhone’ with the ability to send kisses, quick flirts, send messages, cycle through profiles and more.
UrbanDaddy
UrbanDaddy , a leading email magazine and digital publisher of local lifestyle and entertainment information, today announced the launch of its first iPhone application, “The Next Move” The application guides users to the latest hot spots with a unique real-time “concierge engine” that essentially puts an UrbanDaddy editor in the palm of your hands. It’s sponsored by none other than Lexus’ new summer-perfect convertible.
With thanks to super app site: http://www.appcraver.com.
image courtesy of www.sandbarstosunsets.com
