How to Spot the Best Free Business Tools
Ask any of my friends or family, and they’ll tell you that I certainly love a deal! I’m the guy using coupons at the grocery store, scouring the web for discount codes, and haggling any chance I get. So when it comes to the systems that I use for my business, I follow my lean principles and look for the best value I can get.
So how do you know when something’s a real steal and when it’s too good to be true? The answer lies in understanding the motivations behind why a product is being offered for free, and making sure the trade-offs work for your needs.
Here are my top 3 reasons why a company will offer software for free based on what I’ve learned over my years bargain hunting for the best-valued systems.
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Tips to Avoid Getting Burned by Free Products
To follow up on my last post about how to take advantage of the motivations behind why companies offer their products for free, I wanted to share some additional tips that are essential in picking a free tool for your business.
Tip #1 — Don’t run the core of your business on free systems
Unless you’re self employed or are in the very early stages of your business, it’s a bad idea to run the central components of your business on a free software.
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Reclaiming the Ideals of Entrepreneurship
When you hear the word entrepreneurship, what comes to mind?
Investment?
Growth?
Disruption?
Tech?
Scale?
These were the words I kept seeing over and over this morning as I was perusing a popular media site that highlights stories and events within the DC entrepreneurship community.
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Filling in the Spaces of an empty canvas
For creatives, a blank canvas represents the beginning of something new. An exciting start to a destination with infinite possibilities. For systems thinkers like me, a blank canvas can feel like an infinite expanse of nothingness, devoid of anything to grab hold of for inspiration or direction.
At times, the blank page of my computer screen gives me that same feeling. The blink of the cursor flashing at the top of a page awaiting the words that I can’t seem to find swirling in my head. Writing can be incredibly rewarding, and a source of clarity and inspiration. But regardless of whether it’s been a blog post, a journal entry, a marketing document, or even my to do list, it’s been a real challenge for me recently. I’ve been lacking that something to grab hold of.
This week, Spaces gave me that something.
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Why is WeWork so popular?
For people who aren’t that familiar with the concept of coworking spaces, if they’ve heard of one, they’ve likely heard of WeWork. WeWork is the fastest growing coworking concept in DC, if not the country. In the past few years, WeWork has quickly expanded from 1 to now 10 locations across the metro area, with more on the way. With locations such as White House, Manhattan Laundry, and Crystal City, when I started this project, I knew that WeWork would be one, if not several, of my stops. I’ve been incredibly curious about what’s made it so popular, and to some in the entrepreneurial communities I’ve been connected with, a bit contentious as well. I visited their Dupont location to find out.
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How to filter out the noise in the connection economy
As I reflected upon at the beginning of my journey back into the DC entrepreneurial community, I’ve learned how strongly my brain is wired in systems thinking. I can’t help but see the world as a beautifully complex structure of nodes and connected pathways. Sometimes this holds me back when I struggle to find “anchor points” in new environments, but it also gives me this insatiable curiosity to find order in a seemingly chaotic world.
I believe our success in life (however we choose to define it) is largely determined by our ability to understand our relationships with systems — both our place within the systems in which we live, and the relationships we have with and between others that exist within those same environments. But not all connections are valuable, and the wrong ones can be detrimental to our success.
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The secret behind DC’s most unique co-working space you’ve never heard of
This week I visited a truly unique co-working space. So unique that it doesn’t even have a name, but those who work there endearingly refer to it as their 1327 Family. So how is 1327 Family different, and what impact does it’s character have for it’s members? Read on to find out!
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Is the Entrepreneurial Dream Wasting Millennial Talent?
America has a love affair with entrepreneurs. We idealize successful icons like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, and we tune in to shows like Shark Tank and The Profit to watch people just like us try to achieve their own success. It’s not hard to see why. Entrepreneurship represents the very essence of the American dream. Entrepreneurs are literally able to take their dreams and turn them into reality. But is this vision of entrepreneurship an accurate representation, or is it simply the picture we want to see?
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Impact Hub — Where Change Goes to Work
This week marked my first full day of work at a co-working space in nearly 5 years. Back then, I was working on my first business, weBike, in a co-working space called the Affinity Lab. weBike and the Affinity Lab were both firsts. weBike was the first stationless bike sharing system in North America, and Affinity Lab was the very first co-working space in the country. Although neither are around any more, since that time, the entrepreneurship and co-working scenes have exploded in DC, mirroring a trend happening in many cities around the world.
I’m beginning a journey back into the DC entrepreneurship community by visiting a new co-working space each week. In blogging about my experience, I hope to shine a light on the unique qualities and traits of each space I visit. So let’s kick it off!
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Leaning In — The Start of a new Chapter
I’ve lived, schooled, and worked in the DC area for my entire life, and I’m an entrepreneur. Yet I know next to nothing about the DC entrepreneurship community. So I’ve decided to dive in. Why? For starters, I was catapulted out of the comfortable job that I buried myself into for the last 8 years when it suddenly failed. That really sucked. But I’ve decided to turn that failure into an opportunity and reconnect with the DC entrepreneurship community I’ve missed out on for far too long. These used to be my people, yet work became the perfect excuse to not stay connected. Slowly, I lost touch with this scene and now I know practically no one. That’s about to change. I’m going to visit a new co-working space every week and share my experience with you. Hopefully, we both can learn more about what’s happening here in the District, the people making it happen, and how this community reflects the way our world is changing at large.
Let me back up and tell you more about how I got here.
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