It’s been awhile since I posted a new blog entry.  I’ve been busy helping clients get web projects launched, and now I’m excited to post on this blog again.

Here are some of the projects I’ve worked on and the free tools used to create them.

ManageMen

ManageMen is a pioneer in cleaning industry processes and education.  Clients include government institutions, universities, and large corporations like Boeing.

ManageMen.com uses the open-source Joomla CMS (Content Management System) to update their site whenever they want, with no programming skills required.  A custom Joomla template was designed for this project.  The slideshow on the frontpage uses the Featured Content Glider script.

Lost Coin Zen

Lost Coin Zen is a personal and spiritual development group led by Zen teacher Daniel Doen Silberberg.

I setup a blog to tie into their existing website.  The blog is built on WordPress using a customized version of the Elegance theme.  We used various third-party plugins including the open source WP-Cumulus.  The blog is growing quickly and has brought in new students from all over the world.

Tea This

TeaThis.com is a personal project my wife and I are having fun with.  The site is for tea lovers and features blog articles, free tea e-cards, and fun tea t-shirts.  We’ll soon be adding a video to the blog.

I did a custom graphic design and use WordPress for the blog and CMS.  The tea e-cards are driven by the free Popcard sofware.  I wrote custom code to wrap the e-card interface into the WordPress header & footer for a consistent template.

We have a custom graphic background for our twitter account, and use CoTweet for multi-user twitter account management.  CoTweet is perfect for organizations engaging on twitter. For more info checkout this demo.

First Endurance

First Endurance is a leader in endurance supplements.  They sponsor the top cyclists & triathletes in the world, including Lance Armstrong & the Astana Pro Cycling Team.

First Endurance has been a client for many years.  Last year we set them up with a WordPress blog which brought a huge increase in traffic.

I’m very proud of my recent redesign of their shopping cart.  The cart uses the powerful open-source Apache OFBiz software, and our design is very different from the standard OFBiz category and product pages.

CityDeals

CityDeals, a website that sells discount gift certificates, has been enjoying huge growth recently.

The site is also based on the Apache OFBiz software, and has been highly customized.  We recently add new functionality including one-per-customer offers and a new listing based on merchants rather than products.  We used the free Facebox script for a lightbox that populates product info & forms via ajax.

Okura & Associates

OkuraLaw.com is a law firm in Hawaii run by my father and brother.  I created a custom graphic design for the site and used WordPress as a CMS as well as for the blog.  They can login and easily update any of their pages or add new blog entries.

The front animation uses the CrossSlide script for jQuery.  The web phone call button uses Greybox for the lightbox.

1402 Piikoi

This website is for a real-estate development project in Hawaii.  After launching in Fall of 2008, most of the units were sold within a few months despite the economic conditions.

The design was based on a tutorial by graphic design guru Fabio Sasso.  The photography lightbox was built on Greybox.

This is just a sample of some of the work we’ve done recently.  Don’t forget to subscribe if you’d like to be updated on future posts with information on our work and the free tools we use.

If you have any questions or comments on the sites or resources we’ve covered, please leave us a comment below.  I’d love to hear from you.

Evolving Beyond The Yellow Pages Mentality

The problem with most small business websites is that they treat the web like a yellow pages directory. They slap up a quick website and are content to be “listed” on the web, missing out on most of the advantages of doing business online.

This backwards mindset runs rampant in professional service industries like accounting and law. Perhaps this because of the habit of marketing through listings like a phone book where they are just one entry competing with many other listings, and there is not much they can do about it.

Competing Online

Some of the more savvy small business owners are starting to catch on to the idea that it’s not enough just to be online, you need to successfully compete online.

I recently posted a case-study on the effectiveness of a law firm website we designed, and over the next three days received contacts from several different law firms.

One of the firms I met with mentioned that the quality of clients that come through the web is much better than any other source. Their Internet clients are easier to work with, more educated, and more likely to pay promptly. They were anxious to increase their online leads, and these were some of the ideas I shared with them.

1. Dress Your Website For Success – First impressions are critical when meeting with potential clients. Your website is frequently the first impression clients receive of your company, so make it a good experience for them.

   Just because your nephew or secretary knows a little HTML doesn’t mean they will be able to build you a professionally designed site. Going with a professional web designer might cost more, but the investment will pay for itself.

   As mentioned in our case study of Long Okura, P.C., most of their clients said they selected them over other firms they found on the web because they had a better website.

   If you were hiring from several applicants that seemed to have about the same qualifications, it would make sense to hire the one that was better dressed and presented a more professional image than the others. That’s what potential clients do when they shop for professional services online.

2. Make It Unique – A website isn’t limited to a crammed box in a phone directory, so add something personal and unique. It could be an award, interview, media coverage, or personal interest.

   The Long Okura website has a section that explains their environment-friendly practices and the green organizations that they passionately support. This unique perspective helps differentiate themselves from other law firms and has generated contacts from the magazines, radio, & TV stations looking for interviews, and even a contact from a well-known figure in the global “green” community.

3. Blog – A blog allows you to keep your website updated with fresh content without having to hire a developer to make the updates. It also helps share information, establish you as an expert, and start dialogs. Blogs also help you show up on search engines for the topics you write about.

   The Long Okura website picked up several new clients in just their first several blog posts. If you’re looking for new cost-effective marketing ideas, it’s hard to beat blogging.

4. Customer Self-Service Tools – Let your customers help themselves. By giving them online tools, you increase customer satisfaction and reduce the operating costs of having these functions handled manually by your staff.

   Some of the self-service tools I’ve worked on include:

   • Online bill-pay, downloadable forms, & “click-to-talk” phone call button for Long Okura
   • Telephony account administration (manage voicemail, faxes, etc) for I-Link.
   • Print Job management (define, submit, approve proofs, track shpiping) for Vision International.
   • Seminar/conference online registration & payment for ManageMen.
   • Product surveys, sponsored athlete application & shopping cart discounts for First Endurance.

   Almost any manually intensive task can be streamlined by creating an online tool to manage it.

There are lots of other ways to make your website outshine your competitors, but these 4 should give you a good start.

If you have any questions or comments on increasing the effectiveness of your small business website, please leave them in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.

Photo credit: How Can I Recycle This

I’ll be interviewed live on the blog talk radio show CouchCast on June 30, 2008 at 12 noon MST. Recent guests on this show include Brock Blake, recognized as a Top 40 Under 40 professional by Utah Business magazine, and Dave Fletcher, the CTO of the State of Utah

Please tune in and join the conversation through the online chat or by calling in. If you can’t make it live, please check out the archived audio stream at CouchCast.org

Update 7/1/08

The CouchCast broadcast was blast, and it was a good learning experience for me.  Thank you to all who tuned in and for those who tried to call in.

Please support the new CouchCast.org blog by leaving a comment and subscribing to the podcast feed.

Here are some of the URL’s mentioned during the show:

Apache Software Foundation:
http://apache.org

1. I love running a web firm because it allows me to wear many different hats throughout the work week. My strength is with the code, data, servers…you know, the geeky stuff. But I also love being creative and designing graphics for websites or banner ads. And I get to play with marketing and advertising all the time. If get bored of one type of “job”, I can move to a different one.
2. Using computers is the only thing that’s ever come naturally to me. I started using an Apple computer during my first semester of the 6th Grade. Within 3 months of first using an Apple, I wrote a program, entered it into a contest, and ended up winning 1st place for the State of Hawaii.
3. My Uncle Steve, a systems analyst at the time, reviewed my code that won the contest. His comment on my code was “this is what we call spaghetti code”.Yes, my program ran fine, but the underlying code was a stinkin’ mess.
   I guess that’s what happens when an 11 year old starts banging out code with no formal training. And I guess the contest judges paid more attention to the program’s execution than to it’s code.
4. The scary thing is I don’t think I really started learning how to write decent code until decades later when I started working with the Apache OFBiz software. I learned a lot by reviewing their elegant code and framework.
5. In the late 90′s, I was one of the world’s top webmasters in the tiny niche of IBM AS400e web solutions. I was recognized by IBM as the first in the USA to commercially deploy their net.commerce software and firewall services on an AS400e server. No one else was doing it, so local IBM partners would call me for support.
   At the time I was the webmaster for ICON Health & Fitness, the world’s largest manufacturer and marketer for home fitness equipment. Brands I setup eCommerce for include HealthRider, NordicTrack, Reebok, ProForm, Weslo, & Image.
6. My favorite language to develop in is Java. It has the most solid, well-built open source applications to work with. But, I work with any language a project requires. Some of the languages I’ve worked with include PHP, Perl, Oracle PL/SQL, Flash ActionScript, & Ruby On Rails.
7. In April of 2007, in the middle of a demanding project (over 200 billable hours for the month), my laptop’s Windows OS became corrupted. I was tired of having to reinstall Windows every few years, so went out and bought a MacBook Pro. Within 15 minutes of using it, I felt like I had finally found my computing soulmate.
   The OS X interface is beautiful and easy to work with. It made we want to spend time with it, and I believe it has helped my productivity. I also love that it’s built on Unix. Through the terminal shell I can setup web application development environments that are very similar to the Linux servers I host my apps on.OS X offers the best of both worlds: Slick & easy interface, or powerful command line access.
8. I have to keep reminding myself to treat my own business like a client from time to time. There will always be other projects to work on for my clients, so I constantly put off working on my own site, blog, and projects. I’m starting to schedule time for my own projects so I can make progress each week.

“Open Source eCommerce Has Officially Evolved” was boldly declared on a blog post announcing the release of Magento version 1.0.

Since 1997 I have worked on a variety of eCommerce systems and for the last several months have been working with Magento. While Magento is very new and lacks the maturity of some of the more established eCommerce solutions, I do agree that Magento has taken open source eCommerce to the next level.

Here are the top 4 reasons why I feel Magento has changed the game:

1. Solid Business Model for Free Software
2. Gifted Designer in Development Team
3. Incredible Community Outreach
4. Brilliant Framework Under The Hood

Solid Business Model

Many open source projects start off with a bang and fizzle out. If the backbone of the project depends on a few passionate developers donating their time with no financial incentive, their commitment to the project is often unsustainable.

The company behind the Magento project, Varien, has setup several ways to monetize their open source project.

• Professional Services (installs, customizations, etc.)
• Commercial Support
• Commercially licensed extensions that offer new functionality.
• Certified Partners Program (other companies pay annual fees to be listed as an offical partner)

Varien CEO Roy Rubin says “Magento is at the core of Varien’s business model”. This statement suggests longevity and stability for the Magento project, critical factors that potential users look for before investing time in an open source project.

By having a for-profit company back the open source project, developers are guaranteed paychecks and have access to resources that other commercial development teams have. This allows them to release commercial quality software without charging for licenses.

Gifted Designer

Drop-dead gorgeous graphic desgin.

The most obvious way Magento has set itself apart from other open source eCommerce projects is the drop-dead gorgeous graphic design.

Most open-source projects looks like the interface was designed by an engineer for other engineers. Magento made the right move by making talented designer Minu an integral part of the development team.

Check out the beautiful screenshots at http://www.magentocommerce.com/media/screenshots.

Community Outreach

Less than a month after the first production release of their software, the Magento online community boasts 14,905 registered users with 351 members currently logged in as I write this post.

Magento has done a fantastic job of integrating their community tools into their website. A single sign-on gives access to Wiki, Forums, Bug Tracking, & Sub-project development groups.

Members of the Magento development team can be found answering questions on the forum, updating entries in knowledge base, and occasionally providing free training via live webcasts.

The Framework Under The Hood

Not only does Magento look sexy, but it was built on a solid object-oriented framework.

As an eCommerce consultant I felt that if I wanted solid code I needed to use a Java-based enterprise solution like OFBiz or Opentaps. But sometimes that was overkill for simple little cart projects and I’d end up using crappy free php carts with spaghetti-like code.

Magento now offers a solution to fill that middle-ground vacuum. Based on the Zend Framework, the code is all PHP so doesn’t require a special application server like the java solutions do and should run on almost any simple hosting solution.

The code can be easily customized using rewrites of existing code to a local repository of customized codes. This keeps custom code separate from base code and simplifies upgrades.

Magento code is object-oriented, so classes inherit all of the methods from the parent class they are extending and you only need to define the methods you’re adding or modifying. No more cloning vast amounts of code.

Other PHP developers have told me that learning the Magento framework was a big paradigm shift
for them, but any developer with a java web application background should be able to dive right in.

Stay Tuned For Free Giveaway

Sometime in the month of May, I’ll be announcing a contest for free setup of a Magento Cart with a free year of hosting, compliments of Bizlift. If you’ve wanted to try selling something online, this will be your chance.

** Update **
Sorry for the delay on announcing the contest.  I’m working on becoming a certified Magento Partner.  We’ll announce the contest shorty after the new 1.1 release due out in July.

If you have any questions of comments on Magento, please let me know below:

I’m dedicating this post to my clients in the news.

Today’s updates:

• Brian Stann wins WEC title fight
• First Endurance rider wins Paris-Nice
• FirstEndurance.com homepage redesign
• Bizlift Blog now full-feed

Brian Stann – New WEC Light Heavyweight Champion

Congratulations to MMA star Brian Stann on another impressive 1st round KO victory, and this one for the belt.

We were hired by Stann’s agent to design and host his official website awhile back, and were thrilled to watch him win a title fight live on tv.

** Editors note 5/10/08: After this entry was published, the design for the Brian Stann site was updated by a different designer.  The new design is not our work. ** 

Stann caught his opponent with a vicious left-hook and finished the fight with strikes on the ground. Mirroring Stann’s hard-hitting ways, his fans have been relentlessly pounding our server with traffic for the last 24 hours.

More info:

• Fight results at Fox Sports
• Stann’s fellow Marines give “Ooh Rah” comments at USA Today

First Endurance Rider Wins Paris-Nice

First Endurance recently celebrated another victory. Sponsored rider Davide Rebellin won Paris-Nice, the first big stage race of the pro cycling season.

More info:

• First Endurance Press Release
• Article on CNN International

FirstEndurance.com Homepage Redesign

We’re proud to announce the launch of our new homepage redesign for First Endurance. This is the first of several site improvements for firstendurance.com in the next few weeks.

First Endurance has been with us for 5 years. We’ve helped them develop their website, increase direct sales through their shopping cart, and gain 5000+ subscribers to their monthly email newsletter.

Bizlift Blog Now Full Feed

Thanks to a twitter conversation between IttyBiz and BigBrightBulb, I learned how to prevent blog feeds from cutting off. The Bizlift Blog feed now contains entire posts.

Thank you for checking out our updates. If you have any questions on web design, hosting, eCommerce, or anything else web-related, please leave a comment or contact us.

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.” – Stephen R. Covey

Reality is Subjective

How do some individuals achieve a level of success that seems impossible for most other people?

Short answer: They believed it was possible.

They believed when they first dared to dream big. And they found ways to constantly keep the belief alive until their goal was achieved.

Before we go any further, here’s a little teaser:

Believe it or not, this article contains a video clip of a man walking on water.

It sounds impossible, but he dreamed big and found a way to achieve it in remarkable fashion.

Fertilize Your Dreams

After the initial excitement of a new goal fades and the reality of effort sets in, it is critical that we find ways to keep the belief alive.

Visualization is a powerful tool for transforming dreams into reality. When we repetitively see the final result of a goal in our mind, in a photograph, or in a movie clip, our subconscious starts to believe that it has already happened.

Clay Collins of The Growing Life blog wrote a wonderful article on Visual Goal Setting. He suggests manipulating an image to visually represent your goal as if it already existed.

Clay explains:

“The idea is that photoshopped goals help your subconscious believe that you can attain things previously thought impossible. Getting your sub-conscious to buy into a goal radically empowers you to materialize the goal in real life…”

I’ve used visual goal reminders while fight training. I have images of my dream beach-house in Hawaii and an all-electric Tesla Roadster on my vision board.

But my favorite image for the last 6 months is a little more abstract. It’s that funny image at the top of this blog with a business man running on water.

The image helps me be mindful of the following:

• To run with passion in the direction I’ve chosen.
• The business suit symbolizes my focus on career at this point in my life.
• When performing miracles like walking on water, ignore the doubters and follow the arrow on my one-way sign.

I love that image. It brings a smile to my face. It’s the wallpaper on my Macbook Pro so I see it all the time.

As promised, here is a clip of Criss Angel walking on water (while walking over and around moving people, and losing a shoe).

Some may choose to call it an illusion. I see it as defining your own rules to achieve something incredible.

Inspiration credit: I’d like to thank Barbara Swafford of Blogging Without A Blog for the post idea. She challenged her readers to study a picture that they liked and write a post about it.

What is your favorite motivational image? Please share in the comments below.

The freedom to work from anywhere is a wonderful benefit of being an internet-based freelancer.

But what if your significant other has a career that is paper intensive and demands constant face-to-face interactions?

This was my situation when I met my soulmate Rebecca four years ago.

I’d been self-employed for years and was used to traveling and working. Rebecca was an attorney working for a law firm that required frequent in-person meetings and court appearances.

Breaking Free

We’ve taken many trips over the last couple of years and Rebecca has been able to continue her work remotely for weeks at a time. We’d like to share how we were able to break free from the traditional demands of one of the most paper-intensive professions.

With a bit of creativity any couple can find a way to work remotely.

While our techniques for remote work as a lawyer will apply to other occupations, our solution won’t work for every situation. We want to demonstrate that with a bit of creativity any couple can find a way to work remotely.

Here are the steps Rebecca took.

1. If necessary, fire your boss.
2. Simplify through technology.
3. Develop strategic relationships.

After achieving the ability to work remotely, Rebecca developed a 4th step: Little tips & tricks can have a huge impact.

1. Fire your boss

Rebecca left her job to start her own firm.

This step is not necessary in all situations. Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Work Week offers step-by-step advice on how to convince your boss that you are more productive when not working on-site in the office.

For those of you who don’t want to bother with bosses, going self-employed is a great option.

The right technology should feel like magic.

2. Simplify through technology.

The right technology should feel like magic. It should simplify tasks and make life easier.

We researched law firm management software and went with one called Amicus Attorney. This gave Rebecca a solution for digitally managing all of her client files.

The next step was reducing paperwork. She started off with a small scanner and a sheet feeder, but it frequently jammed. Eventually she upgraded her photocopier lease to include one with a network scanner. Now her paralegals can quickly scan all incoming letters and documents and associate them to the proper file in Amicus.

To work remotely, we needed a VPN (Virtual Private Network) solution that would allow her to access her server from anywhere. We found a solution that was absolutely magical.

Hamachi is an amazing zero-configuration VPN solution. It doesn’t require any hardware or access to routers. We started off using the free version, then eventually went with a commercial version for only $40/year.

After testing and working through any issues of remote access from home, we were able to start traveling and working from other places.

When we first started traveling, we used a tiny travel wireless router to share my Sprint broadband connection. Now Rebecca has her own Sprint broadband device.

3. Strategic Relationships

When Rebecca first went self-employed, it was just her and a secretary. She developed relationships with other sole-practitioners so they could cover for each other in court as needed.

Rebecca was soon able to hire several associate attorneys. Now she has lawyers who can not only cover for her in court, but also meet with existing clients and sign-up new ones.

One of the most valuable employees is Rebecca’s Office Manager. She keeps everything running, manages accounting, and handles initial communications with clients. This allows Rebecca to only deal with critical issues while away from the office.

4. Little tips & tricks can have a huge impact.

Rebecca offers this advice:

While running a law firm remotely, I’ve picked up a few tricks that make working remote much easier.

1. Cord Bag – Having duplicates of all of my power, usb, and sync cables makes life much easier. I keep them in a travel bag and never have to remember to unplug a cord from my office and pack it.It sounds so simple, but it makes traveling much easier.
2. Portable Printer – Lawyers are used to dealing with paper. With my portable travel printer, I’ve been able to print up documents to sign on the spot. This has saved many mediations by having both parties sign before leaving mediation and later changing their minds.Sometimes I find it easier to make global edits to long documents by using pen and paper. My portable printer makes this a breeze while traveling.
3. Quickbooks Online – When I first started my firm, Quickbooks Online was a handy way to keep track of the firm’s finances while traveling. Now my office manager does such a great job of running things, I rarely have to look at it. But it’s always there if I need it.

Rebecca Long Okura
Managing Attorney
www.longokura.com

Rebecca has been running her own law firm for three years now. The steps listed above didn’t happen overnight.

Don’t worry if you are not immediately able to quit your job or hire reliable employees. Start planning things out and take one step at a time. You’ll be amazed at what is possible when you combine desire, planning, and creativity.

Learn More About Remote Working

Anywired -Blogging legend Skellie provides information on working from anywhere. Check out the article on mobile offices.

The Newly Rich – Four Hour Work Week, family style. The author shares his experiences on moving to Mexico with his family for 2 months in this article.

Location Independent Living – Taking remote work to the next level, this blog offers information on how to be truly location independent. I enjoyed the article on marketing your business online.

Do you have any questions or experiences in working remotely that you’d like to share? Please leave a comment below.

Some people have the magic touch. They can create value out of nothing.

Painters transform a blank canvas into a work of art. Writers turn empty pages into informative articles. Gifted entrepreneurs are able to conjure creative business ideas out of thin air.

Where does this ability to create come from?

David Lynch’s Big Fish

A few weeks ago I was basking in the creative energy of the Sundance Film Festival. I love that burst of inspiration I experience every time I see an independent artist realizing their dreams.

In one of the screenings we sat right behind the celebrity judges. I wanted to lean over and whisper into Quentin Tarantino’s ear that he was my hero. I had a decade and a half of pent-up hero-worshiping to unburden myself of. But not wanting to risk a listing in the Celebrity Stalker Registry, I kept my enthusiasm to myself and avoided being banned from future festivals.

And with that confession out of the way, let’s get back to topic…

While waiting between movies, our party of film enthusiasts found shelter from the winter in a little bookstore. The first book that caught my eye was Catching The Big Fish – Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch.

I am fascinated by the creative process, I meditate, and I love David Lynch flicks. Needless to say, I was excited by the find. I bought the book to use as an inspiration source for when my creative juices need a jump start.

A few days ago I was browsing through the book and was impressed by an entry titled “Desire” on page 25.

I love the analogy. For me it really does start with the desire for an idea. Then fragment by fragment something starts to take shape.

What Is Your Creative Process?

How do you do it?

What is your process for moving from a blank screen to a finished blog article, spiffy graphic design, or new business idea?

Are you opening a new web-store? Perhaps starting a Timothy Ferriss style 4HWW “muse”?

If you are launching an online store with the anticipation of being wildly successful, this article will explain why open source enterprise software is right for you.

Enterprise Software vs Shopping Carts

Enterprise Software provides tools for managing all aspects of your business.

A typical online shopping cart handles only the ordering part of your business. It might also have basic support for inventory and customer service.

So why would you need more than a basic shopping cart?

1. Room To Grow

Moms buy clothes their teenagers can grow into.

You should do the same with your web store.

As a teenager, I went through a growth spurt one summer. I grew an inch each month.

My mother bought pants several inches too long and would hem the cuff. As I continued to grow she’d let down the cuff inch by inch.

Moms buy clothes their teenagers can grow into. You should do the same with your web store.

Early in my career a boss explained that trying to upgrade a business’s information system while keeping it running is like trying to change the tires on a moving car. The company was moving from a hodge-podge collection of apps to a more robust solution. They actually had to shutdown for a few days to make the switch.

Having to shutdown to handle growth is a good problem to have. But it can be avoided with a little foresight.

Several of my clients have enjoyed explosive growth in recent years. Our open source enterprise solutions have played a vital role in achieving and handling that growth.

These clients started their business running on a scalable system that they could grow into and that would continue to grow with them.

Several years ago I setup Apache Open For Business (OFBiz) for Citydeals.com. The shopping cart had a trickle of orders for the first few months as online sales slowly picked up.

Eventually it reached the point where we had a multi-server load balanced solution handling 1000+ views per minute during peak periods.

It’s performed so well in its own metro area that parters are anxiously opening up new markets nationwide.

Citydeals originally used OFBiz as a shopping cart. They now also use it for the following:

• Customer Service team tracks who last talked to customer, what was resolved, and when that contact happened.
• Sales team uses a CRM/SFA module from Opentaps.
• Management tracks inventory levels and views sales reports.
• Accounting reconciles sales, returns, inventory transfers, etc.
• Partners have a portal to check on consignment sales and reports.

The entire company with 30+ employees and hundreds of partners use this system to run the business.

The Citydeals founder has often expressed amazement and appreciation for the software. Time after time he has requested new functionality and I could happily inform him that it already existed in the system or could be made available with a little bit of tweaking.

2. Available Anywhere

I setup OFBiz for an endurance supplement company over 5 years ago. Now they’re the king of their niche. They sponsor the top Cyclists and Triathletes in the world. Their product is carried in hundreds of retail stores, they have international distributors all over the globe, and the direct sales from their website is cranking.

Apache OFBiz is web-based so works with any browser. The two owners are able to login from home and place orders and check on the fulfillment process and look-up customer/order notes.

They also painlessly switched from one fulfillment center to another. It was as easy as disabling old logins and creating new ones, then trucking the goods over to the new warehouse.

A web-based enterprise solution like OFBiz is perfect for business owners that want to outsource to virtual assistants or other service providers without being tied to them for life.

3. The Price is Right

My clients love that OFBiz saves them a ton of money in licensing.

I’ve launched eCommerce solutions for corporations ranging from a VoIP pioneer with 300 employees to a $1 billion/year world leader in their market. I worked with expensive high-end Oracle systems and was recognized by IBM as the first to commercially deploy their eCommerce solutions on an AS400e midrange server.

When I left the corporate world to go self-employed I couldn’t afford those advanced systems that cost 6 to 7 digits. But I was frustrated by the poorly built open source shopping cart software that was available.

Then I found OFBiz and was floored by the elegant service-based architecture. It was open, free and built with solid framework, data model, and accounting practices.

My clients love that OFBiz saves them a ton of money in licensing. They love that it’s wide open and they don’t have to wait for software vendors to add functionality. They can hire any java developer to make the changes they want.

OFBiz is java-based so will run on almost any type of server. It is database agnostic, so will run on any major database. There is no vendor lock-in with this solution.

Summary

• Open Source Enterprise Software is a great solution for small businesses looking to grow.
• Web-based solutions allow you to run your company from anywhere and outsource to anyone.
• Open Source Enterprise Software is much more cost effective for small businesses than commercial software.

Stay tuned next week for a follow-up post titled “Wide Open – Apache OFBiz Reviewed”.

If you have any questions on this article, please leave a comment below.