More cool (simple) tools for entrepreneurs

I love it when people design products that are (1) very USEFUL, (2) SIMPLE and easy to use and (3) they allow you to try them for FREE.

Here are some cool products that I have been using recently to help me get organised, stay up to date and be in touch.

1. BRILLIANT COLLABORATIVE "GETTING ORGANISED" SOFTWARE - 37 Signals

37 Signals is a company I read about in Time Magazine and then I heard an interview with the founder, Jason Fried, on Venture Voice. The philosophy of the small but impactful organisation is to make this simple, to strip out the clutter and unnecessary stuff and just give us what we need in (1) project management software (2) collaborative work spaces (3) CRM software (4) organisers. The software is VERY cool - especially for business people and entrepreneurs working from dispersed locations. The company also has a pretty interesting book called "Getting Real" that captures their "simplicity" philosophy and a blog of their internal musings that is worth checking out. If you are an entrepreneurial team wanting to get more organised - check out 37 Signals.

2. CREATING A WIKI - PB wiki
I recently created a wiki for an entrepreneurship programme I was running. This gave the opportunity to quickly and easily set up a participative workspace where I could communicate with students, students could communicate with me and we could as joint group build and share ideas to make the programme as meaningful as possible - see gibs-mba-entrepreneurship.pbwiki.com . I was able to do this because PB wiki made it so easy. It is quick, easy and free to set up and start playing with a wiki. Ideas for entrepreneurs: (1) create your own internal knowledge bank using a wiki - enable all people in the organisation to contribute i.e. create a "wikipedia" for your business (2) plan a holiday, event or strategy session using a wiki - allowing everyone to contribute and share ideas and insights See the course wiki I created for an MBA trip to the USA: gibs-mba-usa-westcoast.pbwiki.com (3) use a wiki as an internal "open source" communication tool - have general queries in the organisation posted to a wiki (instead of emailed to a few individuals) and encourage others to respond.

I LOVE the simplicity of both these tools. Why not give them a try*.

*PS - I am not getting paid to "endorse" anything - just wanting to share what I think is useful.