In This Industry, Being Proactive Is Necessary

In today's design world, things get so incredibly busy and hectic that it's difficult to concentrate on anything except the next deadline for your active clients. However, in order to stay competitive, you need to find time to look at new products, new design and marketing trends and new methods of business.

The question is; how do you find the time you need? Many people realize their systems need to be upgraded, and that such an upgrade would enable them to increase productivity and profitability. But when things are busy, there's no time to research new systems, and when business is slower, there's not enough money!

When you're busy and revenues are up, you need to maximize profits, streamline workflow and make sure you're capturing all your billable hours and project costs. Here are some 5-minute tips to help you find the time to research the right system for you:

1. Scribble, ponder, and list. Everytime you think of something you need in a software product or system, scribble it down. Think about what your company needs. Make a list.
2. Search, bookmark and scan. Bookmark websites that look like they might offer features you need. Save reading them for later.
3. Read and check. Schedule 5 or 10 minutes each day to review your bookmarked sites and compare them to your list of requirements.
4. Shortlist, delegate, and test. Build a shortlist of the systems that seem most appropriate. Delegate in-depth research of a system or systems to others, or delegate some of your usual tasks so you can do software and systems research yourself. If a demo version is available, test it to see whether it works for you.
5. Call or email. Now's the time to call your shortlist of companies to ask any questions you have. This will give you a chance to check out customer service, as well as the product.
6. Decide and buy. Don't put it off. Once you've done the research and selected a system, keep the momentum going by making a decision and getting up and running. The sooner you decide, the sooner you'll start to see improvements in profits. More...

This Article has been provided by FunctionFox Systems Inc. To make a positive difference in your bottom line please contact us Toll-Free at 1.866.369.8463 or email info@functionfox.com. For more articles and resources, see www.functionfox.com/resources.html.

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Kulture Shock Media - What's not to love? (pdf) TIMEFOX HELPS KULTURE SHOCK ACHIEVE BETTER CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS, INCREASED REVENUES AND MORE ACCURATE ESTIMATES.

Kulture Shock Media is a web development studio with offices in New York City and Vancouver,Canada.

"Being web designers, we agonize over interactive interfaces and we liked the easy functionality of TimeFox," said Sean Bickerton,Managing Partner.

TimeFox has worked brilliantly for them in a number of ways. It has revolutionized the way they work, and their relationships with their clients.

"With TimeFox,we work more efficiently by focusing on billable hours. So we are more profitable, and better able to monitor project costs that used to remain hidden, such as hours spent on project management," said Bickerton.

Bickerton says that his company is better able to estimate bids on new projects because TimeFox helps them look back on actual, previous results for similar projects, and allows them to review each project after completion to determine how accurate the original quote was and what their real profit was for the job. TimeFox has helped us improve client relationships, increase revenues and cash-flow and improve the accuracy of our estimating process. And we're all more productive — what's not to love? More...

If you would like your company to be featured in a TimeFox newsletter, on our web site or in our promotional package, please send your request to corina@functionfox.com.

For more articles and resources, see www.functionfox.com/resources.html.

When was that project cost incurred and with which client? Many TimeFox customers use the Search function on the Project Costs page, which doesn't stand out to the eye right away when entering the page. This function allows users to search in any field on this page, as long as no specific client or project has been selected. This works great for finding a project cost quickly that you need to have a look at. It is very easy to search for these costs if you enter Invoice numbers or Purchase Order numbers as they are all specific to a certain project cost. You can search across an interval of time as well if you weren't exactly sure when that project cost took place.

And what's really useful is you can search for project costs for a certain timeframe from a specific vendor that you normally deal with, bringing up an easy-to-understand listing of all costs for that time frame. If you track project costs, media buying or even expenditures, this is a function you will want to make a note of!

2004 HOW Design Conference, San Diego, CA

The last HOW Design Conference took place in San Diego just this past May and is sponsored by the HOW Magazine. The conference is an annual event and strives to provide a hands-on, educational program that encompasses creativity, business and technology. The events invite design professionals from all over to publicly speak and address all kinds of issues that designers face and has been held in some of the most known design cities in the US such as Chicago, Miami and Boston.

FunctionFox was pleased to present two tickets to Kyle Loranger and Caroline Clouqueur from Kyle Loranger Design. They attended the conference and sent back the photo just below. Next year keep your eyes and ears peeled for this event as you don't want to miss it! For more information on the annual HOW Conference event, please visit their website at www.howconference.com.