I created this presentation for entrepreneurs who need online tools to make their ideas happen (I gave it earlier this year at the Professional Women's Association in Milan). The presentation "Tools for Entrepreneurs: Create. Collaborate. Communicate." started out as a way to explain very technical things to non-technical people, but I quickly realized that most people when approaching technology get intimidated by the "What's DNS? Do I need a dedicated server?" kind of questions and therefore feel they can't understand technology. I feel that this technology intimidation is really due to the fact that they don't really own their idea, and better understanding it will guide any decisions they have to make with their idea moving forward. So I focus on how to further refine your idea so you can move it forward, even with help, by having a better mastery over what you need and what your users need. I also cover some techniques and tools for collaborating with developers, external consultants, and other remote workers. Then, I briefly touch on communication strategies online and how your site won't be the only place communication happens but it should be the digital hub with the most useful and authoritative information about your company, and how you can develop a communication strategy that spans several types of networks. The appendix includes some open source software alternatives for growing a business on a bootstrap budget.

1. Tools for Entrepreneurs
(or anyone with an idea)
Create. Collaborate. Communicate.
Sara Rosso
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2. 1.
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3. ...technology is not
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the problem

4. It’s your idea.
(Or it’s you, not
fully owning the
idea.)
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5. Before creating,
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own your idea

6. or design looks
like this...

7. Navigation Content Conversions
Look & Feel Purpose Mood
Brainstorm
Support Products FAQs
Monitor Measure
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8. Get inside your
customer’s head
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9. Types of users
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10. Customer / user paths
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11. Commonalities Differences
Products
Features
Organization Look & Feel
Mood
Benchmarking
Who’s doing What works
it better? for your idea?
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12. Must have vs.
Nice to have
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13. Engage external help
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14. Custom
vs.
Out of the box
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15. Controlling your site
vs. remote control
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16. Design & launch
in phases
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17. 2.
Collaborate
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18. A Distributed Company
80 employees 25 countries 65 cities

19. How we Collaborate
Skype
4%
IRC Email
25%
Internal Blogs
70%
Telephone?

20. Intranet & Knowledge Base
70+ internal blogs:
18 for teams
49 for projects
7 for fun

21. WordPress P2 Theme:
instant private network

22. Meeting
Oregon Israel
California Bulgaria
Italia

23. Town Hall
360°
Communication
Every employee has the
opportunity and the right to
ask questions

24. Collaborative, online
documents

25. Set rules for
your tools
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26. Use them for
discussions
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27. Use them for
documentation
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28. Use them for
decisions
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29. Use them for
decisions
And reinforce your
rules.
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30. Proprietary vs.
Open Source
&
Licensed vs.
Free
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31. Core to your
Data freedom?
Can improve or business?
self-host?
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32. Open source alternatives
CRM
Word processor
Presentations
Instant messaging
Spreadsheets
Operating system
Database Graphic design
Audio editors FTP

33. 3.
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34. Credibility:
Value-add +
Accountability +
Reliability
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35. Own the content
vs.
control the message
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36. Your website is
Disneyland
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37. Everywhere else is
the real world
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38. Death of the Pageview
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39. Death of the Pageview
Follower
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40. Death of the Pageview
Follower
Like
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41. Response to Suggestions for
call-to-action improvement
Testers
Better ways to measure
engagement
Sales
Influence Customer
design cycle satisfaction levels
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42. Why
Newsletters How often
Content
Statistics
Rewards
Call-to-action
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43. Ebooks
Narrow content focus
Establish expertise
Reach new users
Give it away for free
Hold something back

44. “Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors,
scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative
work with the freedoms they want it to carry.You can use
CC to change your copyright terms from ‘All Rights
Reserved’ to ‘Some Rights Reserved.’”
In parallel with copyright, not instead of copyright.

45. Create.
Collaborate.
Communicate.

46. These slides & links will be on
WhenIHaveTime.com
Sara Rosso
www.sararosso.com
@rosso on Twitter

47. Appendix A:
Some Open Source Alternatives
for Proprietary Software

48. Operating System
• Proprietary: Windows, Mac OS
• Open Source:
• Linux (generale) http://www.linux.it
• Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/
• Debian http://www.debian.org

49. Web Browser
• Proprietary: Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Google
Chrome
• Open Source:
• Firefox
• http://www.mozilla.com/firefox
• Flock
• http://www.flock.com/
• K-Meleon
• http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/

50. Presentations,
Documents, Spreadsheets
• Proprietary: Microsoft Office, Lotus Suite
• Open Source:
• OpenOffice.org
• http://www.openoffice.org
• GNOME Office
• http://live.gnome.org/GnomeOffice

51. Wiki
• Proprietary: Confluence, Google Sites, Wikispaces,
PBWiki
• Open Source
• MediaWiki
• http://www.mediawiki.org/
• Twiki
• http://www.twiki.org
• PMWiki
• http://www.pmwiki.org/

52. Web Sites and CMS
• Proprietary: Dreamweaver, Blogspot, custom
CMS, Tumblr
• Open Source:
• WordPress
• http://www.wordpress.org
• Drupal
• http://www.drupal.org
• Joomla
• http://www.joomla.org

53. Instant Messaging
• Proprietary: GTalk, MSN Messenger, Skype, Yahoo
• Open Source:
• Pidgin
• http://pidgin.im/
• Adium
• http://www.adiumx.com/
• aMSN
• http://www.amsn-project.net/

54. Create PDFs
• Proprietary: Adobe PDF Creator
• Open Source:
• PDF Creator
• http://sourceforge.net/projects/
pdfcreator
• PDF Forge
• http://www.pdfforge.org

55. FTP
• Proprietary: Bulletproof, WinFTP
• Open Source:
• FileZilla
• http://filezilla-project.org
• WinSCP
• http://winscp.net

56. Various Tools
• Web Statistics: AWStats
• http://awstats.sourceforge.net/
• Create Podcasts & edit audio: Audacity
• http://audacity.sourceforge.net
• Manage Projects: GANTTProject
• http://ganttproject.biz
• OpenProj
• http://openproj.org/
• Mind Map: Free Mind
• http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

57. Various Tools
• Modify Images: GIMP
• http://www.gimp.org
• XAMPP – package of web server apps
installable on your PC
• http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
• Delete files, forever: Inferno
• http://inferno.sourceforge.net/

58. PC Backup
• Proprietary: DropBox.net, Norton Ghost,
Mozy
• Open Source:
• Amanda
• http://amanda.zmanda.com/
• BackupPC
• http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/

59. Database
• Proprietary: MS Access, MS SQL, IBM DB2, Oracle database
• Open Source:
• MySQL
• http://www.mysql.com/products/database/
• GNOME-DB
• http://www.gnome-db.org/
• SQLite
• http://www.sqlite.org/
• InnoDB
• http://www.innodb.com/

60. Server Web & Mail
• Proprietary: Microsoft IIS & Exchange
• Open Source:
• Sendmail
• http://www.sendmail.org
• Apache web server
• http://www.apache.org

61. (Management) ERP/
CRM
• Proprietary: SAP, JD Edwards (Oracle)
• Open Source:
• Compiere : ERP e CRM
• http://www.compiere.com/
• Sugar CRM
• http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/

62. Appendix B:
Other Resources

63. Collaborative
Documents
• Google Docs
• http://docs.google.com
• Google Sites
• http://sites.google.com
• Zoho
• http://www.zoho.com

64. Creative Commons
links
• Flickr Creative Commons Search
• http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/
• Click “Only search within Creative
Commons-licensed content”
• Creative Commons Search
• http://search.creativecommons.org/

65. Ebook links
• Sigil open source software • Smashwords style guide
• http://code.google.com/p/sigil/ • http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/
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• Barnes & Noble’s pubit!
• Creating ePub files with (Apple) Pages
• http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/
pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home • http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4168
• Kindle self-publishing • Calibre for managing and converting ebook
formats
• https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/
signin • http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/
• General Kindle self-pub Help & FAQ for them • An Ebook formatting tutorial
• https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/ • http://amalthia.mediawood.net/tutorials/
help ebooks/index.html
• Amazon professional conversion services: • Baker Ebook framework for iPad & iPhone
• https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/ • http://bakerframework.com/tutorials/
help?topicId=A3RRQXI478DDG7 basic

66. Miscellaneous
• MailChimp newsletter service
• http://mailchimp.com/
• Skype for Business
• http://www.skype.com/intl/en/business/
• Twitter for Business
• http://business.twitter.com/
• IRC (Inter-relay chat)
• http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/networks/
• Google Data Liberation
• http://www.dataliberation.org/
• Google Code repository

67. page forward :)
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