I have enjoyed reading other review posts, and I thought it would be nice to look back over what has been an exciting and difficult year. Professionally this has been a really great year. At the beginning of 2013 we made the decision to stop doing client work and concentrate fully on our product, Perch. … Review of the Year
If you are intending to bootstrap a new product in 2014 then I will have a book for you in early January. Until then here is a list of my favourite resources for bootstrappers and side project creators. Many of these have previously been posted to my list, so if you like these sign up … The Bootstrapped Product Resource List
I worked backstage on Jolson! in the West End of London for over a year. For stage crew it was a tough, busy show with a big hydraulic operated set and little wing space in the Victorian theatre to store things. Before each show there was a half hour process of dragging everything out from … It is never done.
I’ve written in the past about how to avoid hefty charges for the task of checking a few checkboxes when completing your PCI DSS SAQ A. I have been following this process for the last few years without problems. After all, my business never touches a card number. We (and our servers) never see a … A hostile environment: payments, the PCI DSS and UK digital businesses
I frequently recommend online accounting package Xero to people on Twitter, however in 140 characters it is hard to get across why I think it is such a fantastic solution for people selling products. Bookkeeping is harder once you have a product If you are essentially a services company you most likely send a relatively … Preventing accounting chaos in your product business with Xero
The Smashing Book 4 has been released today. I have seen the PDF version and am eagerly awaiting the delivery of the physical book as Smashing Magazine always do a lovely job with their books. My chapter is about providing technical support, and is based on our experiences supporting Perch. I’ve been writing and speaking … Smashing Book 4: Writing about technical support
There was a great deal of interesting discussion last week based around a few blog posts. It started with a post on Medium entitled, The Myth of the Design Studio Turned Product Company written by Richard Banfield. Richard believes that the story of 37Signals, “unknowingly started the mythology that every design or development studio should … Making Your Product a First Class Citizen
In 2009 I was one half of a successful web development consultancy business, working alongside my husband developing sites for clients. We launched our product Perch as a side project alongside our client work. It became profitable within 24 hours of going on sale, has now taken well over half a million dollars in revenue, … Announcing The Profitable Side Project Handbook
The earliest blog post on this site dates from April 2001 and it started life as my personal blog. Ultimately it became the site from which I also promoted my books, speaking engagements and anything else I was doing as me, rather than as my business edgeomyseat.com. Every so often I have attempted some sort … A new site design
“I don’t feel it’s my job to insulate my children from the world, but rather it’s to be the best custodian of their future selves I can be. Most of the time that means preparing them with the knowledge and tools they’ll need, in this case it means understanding I don’t need to share my … Conversations with my teenager about the Internet