What makes for a great task and project management tool?

In the post:

01:35 - Some names in management software

05:04 - The considerations behind dapulse

06:42 - How it works with teams

10:52 - When used for task management…

13:22 - dapulse in the coaching field

16:05 - Go simple or complex?

16:55 - Value for e-commerce companies

20:03 - Coming very soon…

21:24 - What should you focus on?

24:29 - The post-travel inbox nightmare

28:50 - How the software came about

32:39 - Common mistakes to avoid

38:33 - Summing things up

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Transcription:

James: James Schramko here, welcome back to SuperFastBusiness.com. Today, I'm speaking with Matthew Burns from

http://lnx2.co/2Xe" rel="noopener noreferrer">dapulse.com, and we're talking about project management, and task management, and some of the tools involved in that. So I'd like to welcome to the call Matthew.

Matthew: Thank you so much, James, very happy to be here.

James: Well, it's great to have you here, and it's a topic that is often discussed in our community. Most people listening to this podcast have their own business, or are still running their own business and working for someone else, somewhere in one of those two buckets. And one of the things that happens as they grow their own business is firstly, they find they need to manage themselves better, so that whole self effectiveness is a topic that comes up a lot for us. And the second thing is inevitably, you just get to a certain point where you can't go much further unless you hire a team, and you start having people coordinate with you, with your business.

Some names in project and task management

So they're two of the major areas where I see this tools topic pop up. And we hear a lot of names coming up all the time, and no doubt you'd be familiar with most of them. Then you're with dapulse, which is another tool that's in the mix there. So some examples, in our business over the last 10 years, we would have tried a lot of different systems. We've used everything from Basecamp, which is a pretty popular tool, and Teamwork, Trello, which seems by far and away the most popular one we hear about. And we haven't tried, but we're familiar with Podio, and we've tried Wrike, and of course Google Docs is a mainstay in the back of our system there.

And then as a task management, and these things are sort of slightly separate, project management and task management, I've tried lots of different tools there, from the Reminders app in the Apple, to just notes, to Google Docs, to pieces of paper, Post-it notes, whiteboards. And it really fascinates me how there's so many different tools, but I've never really found many that seem to naturally gel with the way that humans work. Almost all of them tend to be a place where stuff gets dumped, and then we're still doing what we're going to do anyway, and then we go and retrospectively look at the tool to see what we did and then move the blocks around.

And in some cases, one of the most incredible discoveries I made with our team, in the early days, we were using Basecamp, the team would go and update Basecamp, and then simultaneously, they were running a Google document in the background, where they were actually coordinating things. And then I asked them, "Why are you updating Basecamp if you're using Google?" They said, "Oh, that's for you, boss.

Does your business have the systems it needs to stay on top of its numbers?

In the episode:

01:32 - From paper receipts to leveraging the cloud

05:44 - You need THIS to make good decisions

06:28 - Some business nightmares

08:38 - The problem of fraud

12:07 - The ease of using Xero

14:23 - Better systems for greater transparency

17:07 - From the bad to the good

22:24 - Where to limit access

24:42 - Auditing your accountant

27:22 - If you find a good accountant…

29:47 - What numbers should you pay attention to?

32:22 - When customers don’t pay

35:00 - The power of the subscription model

36:32 - Automate when you can

39:07 - Reducing churn and increasing revenue

40:05 - Summary and takeaways

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Download the PDF transcription and guide to Leveraging Financial Systems For Your Business

Transcription:

James: James Schramko here, welcome back to SuperFastBusiness.com. Today, I have a special guest, we’re talking about business-y stuff. Welcome Scott Orn.

Scott: Thank you James, great to be on the podcast.

James: You're a listener of the podcast, and you've reached out and said you'd love to share some ideas around systems and financial processes, and after my eyes glazed over, I said, "Yeah, sure, that sounds fantastic."

Scott: [Laughs] Well, what we're trying to do here is, you know, at Kruze Consulting we work with about 140 startups, and we have learned all the best processes, best softwares for new businesses to establish themselves on, and so I was hoping just to give your audience some tips, and get them going in the right direction with the best processes and best software services, and save them a lot of grief down the road and do it right the first time.

The shoebox of receipts

James: Perfect. So you've been working with KruzeConsulting.com. And in that process, you've seen a lot of different approaches. I imagine when you first take on a customer, you would find some pretty shocking and horrific accounting practices and systems. So I'm sure that's true, right?

Scott: Oh, absolutely. We literally have CEOs come into our office with a shoebox full of receipts. Like, that happens.

James: Well, you know, I've met CEOs who wouldn't even know where the shoebox is. [Laughs] I'm often surprised at the lack of understanding around numbers by business owners, and it's certainly something that we've pushed to the front of our awareness. In the high-level coaching that I'm doing, we have to know our numbers. We got to understand all sorts of numbers, so we'll come back to what sort of numbers are important in a sec.

But over the years, I went through that process as well, where I'm keeping paper receipts for everything and doing printouts and then a once-a-year tax return, which I used to just dread, putting all that stuff out onto the huge table. I had a large table, it was 1500 cms, which is one half meters, which is pretty big. It's like, probably five feet or something, I'm not sure exactly, but five by five. And it was full of papers. And I would write everything down in a journal, and then I'd go and visit my accountant, and then they'd do the tax return.

A process upgrade

And then of course through that we sort of upscaled to the process where he would send a bookkeeper out to my house once each quarter,

Have you considered creating an app for your business?

In the podcast:

01:33 - James’s brief history with apps

03:34 - A look at some stats

05:27 - Jarrod’s app experience

08:27 - Pokemon Go for Phys Ed

10:20 - The value of having an app

16:50 - Where do you start?

20:35 - What app makers need to consider

24:53 - Why hire a developer?

27:42 - Before going down the app path...

29:08 - Summing things up

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Download the PDF transcription and What An App Can Do For Your Business

Transcription:

James: James Schramko here. Welcome back to SuperFastBusiness.com. Today, I have a special guest who's been here before. But we're talking about a different topic. Welcome back Jarrod Robinson from TheAppMatch.com

Jarrod: Thanks for having me James. It's always a pleasure to have a chance to chat.

James: Now we've spoken many times. You've brought a lot of value to our community. You've shared with them some of the things you've been doing with automated webinars in our previous series, we had a multi-part series, you spoke at SuperFastBusiness Live this year, and we're recording this in 2016. You spoke about some of the things you changed to really improve your business. I get the pleasure of working with you behind the scenes, talking to you about business stuff, helping you grow your business. I know you just came back from a big live event that you ran, which was very successful. Congratulations.

Jarrod: Thank you.

James: What we're talking about today of course is apps. We're specifically talking about matching an app for your existing audience. We'll have to sort of break this down a bit, but people who are following SuperFastBusiness will know that I recently launched an app for SuperFastBusiness. I got to say Jarrod, I was a little bit skeptical about it because it wasn't my first app. When you were helping me with this, you would have seen there were a couple of other apps in my account. I've been down the path before.

The last time, it was kind of difficult. I had an idea for an app that I was using with coaching clients. One was called Leverage, the other was called Wealthification. It was a bit of a trial to get people to develop it for me. They were already my second and third app. There was actually one before. My first blog, Internet Marketing Speed, had an app. Back then, some company created an app that was really just pulling in my blog and a few media things. It was OK, but it sort of invariably went out of date, and then I changed my domain. So it sort of dropped off the face of the planet.

But with the Wealthification and Leverage one, I hired someone to do it inhouse. They were kind of a flighty programmer and they ended up leaving. I don't know where the source code is, and they're getting out of date too. So I wasn't that excited about my fourth app. I've seen other people do apps. But we've been talking about your app experience, and I've seen how prolific you are with apps. How many apps have you made so far?

Jarrod: Well, I mean it would be around 100-plus mark for both Android and iOs. I'm sitting here saying that I have no idea how to program any of the languages bu...

How can you achieve lasting health and fitness rewards?

Podcast highlights:

02:27 - The bride’s diet phenomenon

06:28 - What’s really driving you?

09:50 - The way people take in info

12:56 - Leveraging pain from a coaching perspective

15:51 - Do public goal declarations always work?

20:46 - Achieving long-term change

25:19 - Cue, routine, reward

27:08 - An example of negative habit formation

31:23 - A framework for habit change

34:38 - The power of community

38:26 - Exercise’s effect on other areas of life

42:07 - If you’re looking for a coach...

46:00 - Summary and takeaways

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Download the PDF transcription and A Guide To Long-Term Health And Fitness

Part 1 of the series

Part 2 of the series

Transcription:

James: James Schramko here. Welcome back to our incredible series. You know really, it's quite exciting and revolutionary. Certainly for a lot of people listening to this, it's a first exposure or second exposure to this whole idea of DNA. This Optimum Strategy to Health and Fitness Series with my good friend Jonny Deacon has been mindblowing for me. Welcome back Jonny.

Jonny: Hi James. We're nearly at the end of the marathon.

James: It's amazing! It's like a massive workout. It's been certainly a long series. If you just arrived at this episode, you need to go back and listen to episode one, which is where we just covered DNA and Jonny introduced why we might be interested in it, what it is, we did DNA 101, how you can get out of that one-size-fits-all scenario and go to a more personalized training program. And we even covered my own fitness report, which was eye-opening.

Then we moved to the podcast two, where we talked about the foods that I should and shouldn't eat, and how my body processes everything, from caffeine through to vitamins and toxins. That was really interesting. We also covered the psychology, how we actually approach our training.

Then we're here right now in podcast number three of this series. In this one, we're going to be talking about the three pillars. Why discovery, leveraging pain, and the power of habit. So I'm going to hand over to you Jonny to take us home.

Jonny: Thanks James. I'd really like to kick this off by asking the question, what makes people give up and go from the impossible to possible? I believe it's centered around people really moving from shoulds into musts. Now for me, musts are about creating things which allow us to be pulled towards our desired results. In this case, with our health and fitness, these are actually getting up and running with three critical elements in and around these musts.

Discovering your purpose

Now the first one of these is quite punchy.

What can DNA testing contribute to your nutrition plan?

Podcast highlights:

03:43 - Should you bother getting fit?

06:52 - Is it the best diet for you?

12:37 - Genetically-matched vs. standard weight loss

16:13 - The macronutrients that make up diet

17:27 - How sensitive are you to carbs?

20:02 - Carbohydrate sensitivity result

30:13 - Let’s talk about fats

43:38 - The internal story of saturated fats

49:18 - On the subject of protein

54:24 - The role of biomarkers

57:39 - Letting your body adjust

1:00:56 - Next marker: detoxification

1:07:27 - Antioxidants and recovery

1:09:47 - The Omega-3 requirement

1:13:27 - How much vitamin B do you need?

1:25:56 - Vitamin D: not just for bones

1:30:07 - Salt, alcohol and caffeine

1:41:28 - Lactose tolerance

1:46:49 - What determines gluten tolerance?

1:56:49 - A look at Kolbe in relation to fitness

02:08:07- Episode wrap-up

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Part 1 of the series

Part 3 of the series

Download the PDF Transcription and guide to How Genetics Can Impact Your Nutrition

Transcription:

James: James Schramko here. Welcome back to SuperFastBusiness.com. We are knee-deep in a journey into DNA fitness. We're in The Optimum Strategy to Health and Fitness Series with Jonny Deacon, and this is part two. To do part two, I need Jonny Deacon. Are you there mate?

Jonny: How are you James?

James: I'm actually, really good. Thanks in large part to my little, small army of health supporters who seem to be band together to work on me, the person, the body, to get me more flexible, to get me stronger, and fitter, and healthier. You've been a big part of that lately, Jonny. In our first episode, which if you haven't listened to, go back and listen to. Our part one was about why are we looking at this whole DNA thing. What is the connection to understanding ourselves with our fitness and what we eat? Why is that so important? So go back and listen to that episode if you haven't listened to it.

This episode, we're going to be revealing my diet report. So if you've been following along, in the previous episode, we were talking about my fitness report and what the DNA of my core structure is. We also talked about why a lot of health and fitness programs don't work and where DNA is going and how useful that is. We're also going to get into the mindset, the psychology of how we incorporate this fitness stuff. We're going to talk about Kolbe in this episode. So we're buckling in for an interesting ride.

In fact, in episode three of this series, we're going to be having a look at the three pillars of how you can have a great lifetime habit. I'm very excited about everything that's coming. There's been some developments too, Jonny, even since we last spoke.

Jonny: Yes James. I'm really excited to hear all the feedback. Certainly from my end,