apowell

I was piloting Chargify with about dozen customers to see if I wanted to make it the default platform for all of my customers. Now, definitely not. This bait and switch shows a complete lack of respect for everyone who has invested in the platform.

Chargify, I'm sure you'll be laughing all the way to the bank, but not with my money.

Does anyone sell an installable non-SaaS replacement for Chargify that integrates with Authorize.net CIM?

Even if your target user thinks your tool is the greatest thing since sliced bread, do they have the authority to get out a company credit card and spend $10 on the spot?

Do people want to use a "beta" product for production work? (I assume very few people do GIS file conversions for fun.)

What happens if a customer gets a slightly different source file and needs to convert it again? Does that cost another $10? Instead of charging per-conversion, what if you offered a thirty-day "all-you-can-convert" plan?

In general, the website doesn't inspire confidence and it certainly isn't optimized for conversion. Payment information is lacking (yes, I see it's buried in your FAQ).

I'm unlikely to switch from Things to Taskforce, but I would pay for a Gmail->Things "Convert to Task" button.

Don't sweat it. If your project is successful, the participation of your friends and family will be a drop in the bucket -- and a support headache.

My friends and family are happy that I'm happy making a living doing what I enjoy on the internet. That's enough.

This is probably the link you were looking for: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1522327 (great post -- it piqued my interest too, so I'm very interested in hearing more ideas)

You are asking for legal trouble in a major way. Yelp seems fairly forward-thinking, so I doubt they'll come after you with their lawyer-guns blazing, but they could. And if you don't change your name, you'll leave them with no choice.

Then there's the whole TOS issue of reproducing Yelp content, and on top of that you're violating the copyright of the Yelp users who posted the reviews -- they gave Yelp permission to publish their review, but they didn't give you permission.

I like the idea, and I'd like to see you make it work -- not just for Yelp, but for all the major review sites. If you get the Yelp trademark out of your domain name, serve reviews from multiple sources (Citysearch, etc), and then use excerpts in a defensible fair-use way, then I think you might have something more workable.

Also, sell them framed. No one wants to find frames, and it's a great opportunity for you to create additional profit margin.

I use Authorize.net with Automated Recurring Billing (ARB). I only intervene to handle exceptions like an expiring card or failed transactions. I bill each customer each month on the day they signed up to avoid explaining pro-rated transactions.

I don't typically email invoices or receipts, but when customers request it I setup a Blinksale recurring invoice to coincide with their billing cycle.

Authorize.net CIM is great if you need to bill irregular amounts or at irregular intervals, but it requires an outside trigger to initiate a transaction. The Authorize.net ARB service is more self-contained and works for my needs.

Every couple of months I reconcile my accounts spreadsheet with my recent charges to be sure that no accounts fall through the cracks.

I use a ThemeForest admin template for a web app I developed for non-technical small business owners. (http://themeforest.net/item/simpla-admin-flexible-user-frien...)

I don't claim to have the most amazing admin panel ever, but it saved me lots of time and money, and allowed me to deploy my app quickly and start making money. My clients are happy with it.

I got about halfway through the survey before realizing it was about workstation backup, not server backup.

Time Machine + Dropbox makes workstation backup a solved problem.

Slicehost Backup + Tarsnap makes server backup almost a solved problem. And I say almost because I don't like having no choice but to store my full bootable backups with the same provider that hosts my primary server. If I could store bootable weekly images off-site, I'd be golden.

Here's my off-the-cuff analysis based on the limited information you've provided:

Keep it. The consulting business is worth very little, I think you're right to view it as "selling a job". Take it out of the equation for now. You have $25k - $35k in passive product-based income. That's your sellable asset.

So what's it worth? Three years of demonstrated profit would probably be a fair selling price. Based on that you're looking at about $75k pretax. Why do that when you can just sit on it for three years, realize the profit, and still have a business that generates income?

If you don't want to do any more consulting work but have recurring business coming in, consider finding a trusted developer who can assume your clients and will pay you a commission on future billings.

Do you have an iPhone app on the way? Currently I keep a Mint account for my business which I check frequently on my iPhone. That being said, Mint is just a toy for me; the real work gets done in Quickbooks.

Your pricing seems oddly segmented. Intuitively, I don't know how many transactions I run each month. I'm not even sure how I'd count them. I'm pretty sure it isn't more than 500, but who knows. At the 'enterprise' level (and I'm certainly not enterprise) I would have a tough time justifying a price nearly equivalent to buying a copy of Quickbooks Pro every single month. Especially when my accountant is still going to want a Quickbooks file to prepare my taxes.

This is the only espresso machine I've owned, but I really enjoy it. One-button lattes and cappuccinos are very nice.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001NAATK2/ (DeLonghi EN670.B Nespresso Lattissima)

(Edit: If you're not looking for automatic, you can probably scratch this one from your list.)

If you're game, I'd like to talk -- your experience sounds like a great match for my business. Contact info is in my profile. (Also, if you'd like people to get in touch with you, add some contact info to your profile. The email field isn't visible to the rest of us.)

Yes, I have to add to this sentiment. In my mind, I imagine Dropbox to be just as secure and private as my own hard drive. It's a bit of a fiction, I know, but until now nothing caused me to really question it. I use it for important files -- the sensitive ones that I really don't want to lose.

Maybe it's all perception, but this makes my private files feel dangerously close to the wide open web.

Dropbox, don't make me feel dumb for using your service for stuff that matters. If your service is meant for funny cat pictures and not my tax returns, please tell me now.

If you're past the point of wondering how you're going to buy your next meal and make rent, then yes, it is absolutely worth it.

I use a Steelcase Leap (I tried the Aeron, but prefer the Leap, go sit in a bunch and see what you like) and it's been worth every penny compared to the Office Depot chair I has previously. I don't sit in it and think "wow, this is a comfortable chair" -- that's not the point. It just becomes an extension of your body and you forget it's there at all. I can sit in it for hours without becoming tired or uncomfortable.

Since you are an independent contractor and not an employee, did you sign a contract stating that all your work was a "Work For Hire"? If not, then you likely own the copyright to all the work you've created -- which means that while your boss may have a legitimate license to use the work you've created to date, he doesn't have the right to create derivative works (read: modify the software) or sell copies of the work.

You may find these articles interesting: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/article-29953.html http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/ownership.html

If you were an employee on a W2 then this wouldn't be an issue -- your work would be a "Work For Hire" by default.

Your boss has created a legally perilous situation for himself. If you're a contractor, then he likely doesn't own the software he thinks he does. If you're an employee, then he owes a lot of taxes.

So if you're ready to burn a bridge, here's an idea. Find an attorney who will take your matter on contingency -- many will do a no-fee consult to see if there's a case. What you want to do is license your code to your former boss (the code he thinks he owns already) for a reasonable but substantial one-time sum. Low to mid five figures doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

And as everyone else has said, find a new job. If you're looking for contract work and you know CodeIgniter, email me (in my profile).

I would be cautious about airing these concerns in front of the same audience that you want to spend money on your products:

  1. Are Braintrust and Tout the right products? Will it make money for me?
  2. Do I need to focus on one product to succeed? Is now the right time to focus?

It's hard to get too excited about using either of your products knowing that you're likely to kill one of them in six months.

(C) DISQUALIFIED S CORPORATION- For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘disqualified S corporation’ means-- ...... (ii) any other S corporation which is engaged in a professional service business if the principal asset of such business is the reputation and skill of 3 or fewer employees.

This phrasing, quoted from the bill, seems open to lots of interpretation. My business sells advertising on websites I've created. Is the principal asset of my business my personal "reputation and skill" or is the principal asset the websites themselves (which required my skill to build, but are distinct from the skills themselves)?

I'd argue that my business (and others like it, which I'm sure there are many here) doesn't fall under that description since (1) the principal asset is the website, not me personally, and (2) even if my skill is the business's principal asset, my personal reputation certainly is not, and the bill stipulates "reputation and skill", not "reputation or skill".

Like it or not, the headset girl has turned into the universal symbol for "here's how to contact customer support". It's not cool, and it's not creative -- but it's a very effective way to be sure that people (who can't be bothered to read) find your support number.

Even more than that, it's a quick way to show that you have phone support, which can boost customer confidence even if the customer doesn't need to use it.

If the ad-blocking crusaders succeed in eliminating all discrete advertising from the web, then what we're left with is (1) very little content (2) lots of paywalls and/or (3) a web supported by paid placement. If users don't allow the ads alongside the content, then the ads will become the content.

On the other hand, if you choose to block ads and recognize that your decision to block ads and enjoy the web as it exists today wouldn't be sustainable if everyone did it; just accept that you're freeloading and move on.

How about a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault in southern California? We've had a couple little shakes this week. There isn't much we can do to prevent it from occurring -- we can only reduce the impact. Build strong and keep emergency supplies on hand.

They're the initials of the author (in caps) and the typist (in lowercase).

By "aggressively within the bounds of the law", I was suggesting that the IRS's position and court's position was already taken into consideration (not just the low chance of being audited).

Regardless, surely it's possible to have situations where distributions are legitimately greater than zero. If I'm an absentee owner who pays a manager to operate my business, my distributions shouldn't be treated as wages.

I see it as a continuum -- on one end, you have cheaters who are paying themselves $10k annually and taking the rest as distributions. On the other end, you have absentee owners who should legitimately be able to claim distributions. In the middle there are many shades of gray.

I admit, that point had not occurred to me. Nevertheless, the Medicare portion isn't subject to a cap.

My main issue was this: "You opt for chaos when you decide to cheat." Aggressive tax planning within the bounds of the law is not cheating, and I think it's unfair to characterize it that way.

The wage/distro setup is an advantage unique to S-Corp owners, and I understand why some want to see it eliminated. But to use it today is not cheating.

Playing the "S-Corp distro game" is not cheating.

If an S-corp brings in, say, several hundred thousand dollars in net profit and the principal pays themselves a fair wage for an employee in that role (perhaps it's in the neighborhood of $80k - $150k), then that is completely legitimate under current law.

Aggressive but correct tax planning is not cheating, and for a responsible business owner who wants to maximize personal income (and ability to reinvest in the business), it's the way the game should be played.

Why start by writing him? Emails are easy to ignore. Give him a friendly call. That'll kick it up a notch without seeming hostile.

You don't need to act like anything is amiss -- just say you're following up on the invoice you sent on April 30th. End the conversation with "Great, I'll look forward to receiving payment by June xxth. Thanks for the project, and if there's any more work I can do in the future, just let me know."

This (1) sets a firm date (even if his answer is "ah, well in the next week or two...") and (2) keeps it friendly. Personally, I wouldn't acknowledge that this is a significant financial issue for you. It doesn't matter. You're entitled to on-time payment whether you have one dollar or ten million.

My understanding is that the correct way to handle this is to pay yourself as an employee.

I run my personal payroll through Intuit online payroll with direct deposit. It costs me a few bucks each month, but the time I spend not thinking about payroll is well worth it.

In my perfect world, there would be several search engines each with roughly equal marketshare. They would all be important, but none would wield the power that Google does today.

I believe it depends on the terms of your employment and your jurisdiction. For instance, California specifically forbids employers from claiming ownership of inventions which are unrelated to the employer's line of business created by employees outside of company time and without using company resources: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab...

It's even worse. I started an entertainment website in 1998, when the Internet had a competitive search and advertising landscape. I didn't rely on a single source for traffic or revenue.

Today, Google Search sends the vast majority of that site's traffic and Google Adsense pays me for that traffic. I wasn't tied when I started, but I sure am now.