There's Something Different This Time

This blog has been fairly quiet because I've been face down in development of MoneyWell 1.3, which is currently in beta test. Here's a peek at some of the changes:

• Added scheduled transactions with user-defined repeat periods


• Added ability to set a different currency for each account


• Added currency exchange rate table and conversion


• Added ability to hide buckets and accounts


• Added ability to reconcile out of range transactions without affecting date


• Added context menus throughout main window


• Added ability to set bucket as optional on a transaction


• Added ability to set date range for reporting


• Added Transaction Report with subtotals


• Added Bucket Summary Report


• Added Tax Detail Report


• Added Tax Summary Report


• Added Combined Income Buckets option to Allocate Income


• and many more...

It's shaping up to be a pretty nice release, but what has really impressed me is my beta test team. Posting a product for beta testing is a very iffy deal. When I post a beta, I hope that some testers will catch bugs I've missed and provide feedback on new features, but I keep my expectations low because people are busy and don't usually end up participating much in the testing. Once in a while, I'll get one or maybe two active testers.

This time it's very different. Not only do I have almost 50 beta testers, 20% of them are actively testing and giving me feedback. There are still a couple of stars that do the majority of the heavy lifting, but this time they are not alone. I'm thrilled and blessed to have such an enthusiastic group to make my job easier.

Not only am I getting excellent bug reporting and feedback, but I'm getting emails that are filled with words of encouragement and pats on the back. I couldn't ask for a better group. In previous companies, I've had employees that didn't give me this much time and effort. This is a public thank you to all those who are contributing to making MoneyWell a better product!

I'm pretty sure I know why this is happening: People respond to passion. They see that I'm not just building a product to earn money. They respond to craftsmanship and hard work. There are always going to be people looking for the lowest price or a "good deal," but that's not the customer base I want. I know that I'll lose them to the next lowest bidder and quality just isn't very important to that crowd.

Here's how to build a fantastic customer base:

1. Create excellent products that solve real problems


2. Care about the fit and finish and not just the features


3. Eat your own dog food—you should be using what you create so you feel your customers' pain when there are problems


4. Answer emails quickly and genuinely—don't send automated responses


5. Listen to your customers: You don't have to add every feature requested, but you should respond to why you won't add something (people will understand when you do something for the greater good of the customer base)


6. Be honest and don't be afraid to fall on the sword, "I screwed up and broke this release. It's being fixed in the next patch. Sorry for any trouble this has caused you."


7. You have to honestly care about your customers—the passion has to be real or you'll come off as a con artist

What has also helped in my case is this blog. People know more about my life, my history, and my ambitions for the future of No Thirst Software. They know that I'm in this for the long haul and that this isn't just a college sideline project to make a few extra bucks. There are six people in my family that depend on this company growing and thriving (and hopefully a few thousand customers care too).

If you want to have a great company, with great customers, you've got to go "all in."

Peace.

Christmas in March

This past week, Apple announced iPhone 2.0, the iPhone SDK for developers, and a little thing called App Store. I believe that most, if not all, Apple developers were tuned into the live blogs posting details of the event as it happened. I know we crashed Twitter chatting about it during the show.

What is all this and what does it mean? You can read about the enterprise extensions for the iPhone coming in June (or watch the presentation—it's gorgeous in HD), but for me and many other developers, the big news was the SDK—our ticket to writing software for the iPhone. The App Store is how Apple will distribute our applications and it's pretty sweet too. There's been some quibbling about the 30 percent that Apple will take for handling the process of selling our products through App Store, but I'm fine with it because I happen to love the way Apple Downloads works now with the publicity it gives our software and that's only one tiny piece of what App Store does.

Basically, App Store will give our customers a simple way to find software we have published for the iPhone, purchase, install, and license it. Then, when new releases are posted, App Store will make sure our customers get the latest versions of our iPhone applications. It's a very clean concept and, since iPhone software is not going to be our main business, one less thing I have to worry about. I can focus on creating a very cool version of MoneyWell Mobile and hand off the rest to Apple. There are still plenty of questions about beta testing, trials, returns, and other phases of the development and sales process, but that hasn't dampened my excitement one bit! Just knowing that nearly 100 percent of all iPhone users will go to this one place to find iPhone software simplifies my life. Who needs to pay for Google Ad Words, which can easily add up to more than 30%, when they are already in the store?

I also think that iPhone 2.0 will storm the enterprise and replace a healthy percentage of RIM phones. There are analysts that claim the iPhone is too expense or still has security holes compared to the RIM Crackberry, but they are way off. They are underestimating the power of great software—and there will be thousands of great software products available when this new iPhone software is released in June. Even if the corporations don't buy phones for their employees, the iPhone will be pulled into the enterprise by employees that want to be more productive. This can easily happen without direct intervention of the IT staff because Apple is tying the iPhone directly to corporate Exchange mail servers and IT doesn't need to do any heavy lifting.

I can't wait to see what happens. It's a very exciting time to be a Mac developer! I feel like a kid at Christmas after finding out my parents just won the lottery!

I've got way too much work to finish on MoneyWell 1.3 to start playing with the SDK now (okay, I did make one sample application just for kicks), but all the latest tools are installed on my iMac and available when I'm ready to code and that's even more incentive to finish and deliver this release of MoneyWell.

What's in store for MoneyWell Mobile? It's too early give details but expect the iPhone version to make it easy to view and update your spending buckets while on the road.

Peace.

Chatting with Aaron, Marcus, and Scotty

I had the privilege of being part of a Developers Roundtable hosted by Scotty. This roundtable podcast includes veteran Cocoa developer, Marcus Zarra and the man that taught many of us to write Cocoa applications, Aaron Hillegass. We were able to toss around our opinions about coding data storage on the Mac and Aaron does a fine job of depressing us by dangling something in front of us that we could have had instead of Core Data but don't.

Listen to it now at The Mac Developer Network.

Peace.

Dealing with the Business of Emotion

Perfectionists are losers: "The problem is, most people don't understand that extremely high quality work usually results from a practice my father taught me from photography:  bracketing.

Bracketing is a general technique of taking multiple frames of the same shot of the same subject using the same or different camera settings.

I used to think that professional photographers took award-winning shots with every click of the camera. As seasoned professionals, they surely did not have the same out of focus/finger in front of the lens or poor lighting problems that plagued my amateur shots, right? Wrong.  Great photographers might pluck one great shot in the middle of 99 mediocre ones.  They know that it is impossible to get the perfect shot in one try, so they  take lots and lots of pictures of the same thing with the hope that one frame will come out perfect."

(Via Escape from Cubicle Nation.)

Pam Slim is the author of the above blog and, after having a baby and spending some time adjusting to the extra responsibility of a new child, she just recently returned to publishing her podcasts that go along with her excellent blog. I enjoy her blog, but hearing her podcast again reminded me of why I love it so much.

I've spent years reading books on business techniques, quality management, software design, and anything I thought would help me improve my ability to design, create, market, and sell my software and run my business, but the fact of the matter is that all this is useless if you don't have your emotions in check as well. Pam is that missing link to that other side of our business: Our emotional well being.

It's hard to wake up each day as a microISV owner knowing that I have to wear almost every hat in my company. There's tech support waiting for me, design work that I don't have crystal clear yet, code that is buggy, marketing efforts to promote, sales to track, and plenty of operations issues calling my name. If emotionally I'm not rock solid, all this can make me want to turn around and jump back into bed.

My biggest problem is feeling that if I don't do it all perfectly, then my business will come crashing down around me and all that hard work and effort are for naught. The truth is that I make daily (and/or hourly) mistakes but I'm not seeing piles of rubble and sales still continue to flow. I'm better about this perfectionist garbage than I was in the past. About 20 years ago, I was a classic perfectionist: I'd plan and design so much that nothing ever really got done. I've found a balance now but it's like any addiction—you're only in recovery, not cured. It only takes one tech support issue to hit one of my tender spots (i.e., features that I have wanted to implement, but haven't yet or flows that I haven't been able to make smoother) and send me reeling in panic. My brain shouts, "It's over! You didn't do that well enough and now that the flaw is exposed, all hell will break loose. I told you this day would come."

Yeah, I have a sick mind.

But this same drive for excellence serves me well also. I consider it a gift—just one that I have to feed, water, and keep trimmed lest it get out of control and consume the very productivity that it allows me to produce. I never thought of myself as an artist, because I can't draw, paint, sculpt, or play any instrument well, but after taking a step back and looking at how I create software and the mood swings that accompany that process, I think I may qualify. MoneyWell will probably never be seen as a great work of art, but I've rode some emotional roller coasters in the past year of its development that would have made van Gogh proud. I think these artistic fits of highs and lows will also, if ever properly documented, secure the title of "Saint" for my wife, given that she still enjoys hanging around with me despite the chaos that I generate.

Make sure you give Pam's post a full read and, if you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to her blog and podcast. Don't be fooled into thinking business is just about business. Business is personal, emotional, and takes more than facts to do right. Now excuse me while I go write some more code to quiet the voice in my head screaming, "It's too late, you're not going to finish 1.3 on time!"

Peace.

Taking Care of the 90 Percent

I guess MoneyWell has hit the big time: it was [k'ed]. That means that some sad individual spent his or her time breaking the copy protection and posting it for the 10 percent to use without paying. I won't bother giving the thief or the download sites any publicity, but someone else was kind enough to point out that this had happened and I do appreciate that very much.

I've written before about my opinions on software copy protection. Yes, it is a necessary evil (just like the ancient adage: Trust in God, but tie up your camel), but copy protection shouldn't hamper honest users from enjoying a software product.

Because I believe that 90 percent of my customers and prospects are honest individuals and will happily pay the small amount I charge for MoneyWell and Debt Quencher, I'm not going to spend time trying to defeat the efforts of the 10 percent that are living a life of scarcity and choose to steal. The 90 percent deserve new features and software refinements and I won't deprive them of those by working on layers of protection that will be cracked by those that are determined to do so.

But this morning, I couldn't stop thinking about who these people are that steal software. They obviously think that just because software costs little or nothing to distribute, there's no physical theft. Excellent software takes months of effort to code, years of experience to design, and dedication to polish and perfect. What do the 10 percent do for a living? Would it be okay if someone where to take forty bucks out of their pocket every few hours? Does that sound fair? I can't help thinking that these people have been really hurt in their lives and they feel that everyone around them should be in pain as well. Or maybe, they are romanticizing this theft by envisioning themselves as a modern day Robin Hood. Let me tell you Bucko, the tights don't look good on you and the microISVs you're robbing from are not "the rich."

Does that mean that big iron companies like Microsoft and Adobe deserve it because they are rich? No. Absolutely not. There is no justification for software theft—it's wrong no matter how you hold your bow.

So to end this on a positive note, there are rewards to living a life of abundance—a life where there is always enough to go around and someone else doesn't have to lose for you to win. If you believe that by giving you will be rewarded tenfold, then it is true. We do more with our attitudes and actions to shape our own futures than the cynics of the world would like us to believe.

I've seen the proof of this in my own life, over and over again. When I live in fear of losing my money, time, or love, that which I most covet always slips through my fingers. When I love without requiring love, tithe without fear of want, or volunteer without expecting a reward, I am blessed with more love, money, and productivity than I expect or can explain. The math doesn't make sense (x - 10% = 10x), but somehow the test is easy to pass.

Live in the 90 percent and enjoy all of life's blessings.

Peace.

It's in There!

I love creating new software releases—especially when I get to give customers the 1984 Prego response: It's in there!

"Hey Kevin, it would be great if we could select a different currency for each account. Is that planned for a future release?" It's in there.

"Is there any way to hide accounts or buckets that I no longer use?" It's in there.

"What about scheduled transactions?" It's in there!

With every new release of MoneyWell, the product moves closer to my original vision for it. Managing finances and cash flow was never easy for me—partially because I didn't like being told that I can't buy something for someone. I'm pretty good at denying myself stuff, but not so good when it comes to my family. I need structure and easy access to financial figures to help me behave myself and running a Quicken budget report didn't cut it.

My initial vision for MoneyWell was a single-window interface that could tell me quickly what I have to spend for each type of expense. The "envelope" system of allocating your income into various containers, each marked by a spending category, was ideal. If I could pull up MoneyWell and see immediately that I only had $20 left to spend on dining out, I would either be able to say, "No, we can't go out tonight" or see that there was more money left in the entertainment bucket that we could use for dining instead.

This part of my vision is complete and I know that I can't just look at my bank balance anymore and say, "Hey we have money! Let's get you that iPhone today!" I watch my buckets instead because managing cash flow is more than the act of asking the ATM how much is in there.

What's coming in the next few releases? More visuals about where cash is going and more planning tools for future spending. Now that I have today under control, I want to know what my spending is going to look like over the next 12 months or more. How much can we plan to spend for a vacation this summer? When are the big property tax bills due? How fast can we eliminate the last of our debt? Should we put more into savings or other investments?

Software and cooking are very similar. The trick is to put all this stuff "in there" without mucking up the look and taste of the sauce. What happens when you put too much salt in it? Or too much tomato paste? Or too much garlic... actually I don't think you can add too much garlic. Scratch that last example. For me, it's vital to remember what I was cooking in the first place. That's why MoneyWell 1.3 is simmering a bit longer. I keep running it through strainers and taking taste tests until I think it's ready to be served. I hope everyone enjoys the next course in the meal. I know I can't wait to serve it!

Peace.

Taming the Monkeys

Running your own business can feel like you've signed up to babysit four hyperactive monkeys—especially as a microISV.

There's the sales/marketing monkey that constantly needs to be fed or he starts taking chunks out of you and you die a painful death. Then there's the operations monkey that wants the books kept in order and paperwork filed or he ties your shoelaces together when you're not looking and you end up doing a world-class face plant. And we certainly can't forget the support monkey that sleeps for a while and then wakes up with night terrors and blood-curdling screams. He's the one that will give you a heart attack if you don't attend to his every need.

Lastly, and most importantly for a software company, is the development monkey. This little guy is your favorite and the reason you started a microISV in the first place. You want to give him the most attention and normally he rewards you with much affection, but he's a bit psychotic. One moment he's all happy and content and the next moment he's pulling out your hair, throwing food (or worse) at you and giving you wet willies.

And all these little guys want to hang around on your back and shoulders all the time. It can be hard to find time for yourself and your family, but you have to do it. It's essential to your sanity and survival. The trick is to keep each monkey entertained on a nice rotating schedule so that they'll leave you alone.

My method is to revolve everything around development. I get up in the morning, check on how sales are doing, look at my support emails, answer any that I can quickly, scan my RSS feeds for news and get on to development. During think breaks in coding, I check the support emails and answer them. Sometimes I can't give a complete answer without more investigation, so I try to at least move an issue forward by requesting more details. This usually works out nicely and I haven't had to deal with many night-terrors sessions.

My sales and marketing tasks are usually saved for later in the day when my three teens are home. I need less focus for doing this work than coding so the interruptions by my kids aren't as bad as when I'm fighting off soggy fingers in my ears. Unfortunately, my carpeting is littered with impressions of my nose because I just don't want to tend to that operations monkey as often as he needs me.

One thing that has helped me tame a couple monkeys is my iPhone. It lets me run errands and taxi my teens to events and still stay on top of support and sales. I can also read my RSS feeds while I'm away from my computer and I feel less guilty reading news and articles. When I'm on my iMac, it seems wrong not to have Xcode as my current application. There's so much code to write (because software is never finished), that I need to give that little chimp as much time as possible.

Lately, I've been using Google's new mobile RSS reader. They updated the interface last month and it made it much easier to use on the iPhone. Unfortunately, it wasted some of my precious "between monkey" time because I couldn't quickly tell Google that I already looked at most of these articles this morning in NetNewsWire and I don't want to see them on my iPhone now—it only allowed me to mark a page of feeds as read.

Just this morning I read NetNewsWire + NewsGator Mobile in Brent Simmons' blog and discovered the joy of NewsGator NewsGator Mobile for the iPhone. Wow! I feel like I just I was given a huge gift of time. It syncs my two readers (along with my clippings) so I only have to mark an RSS feed as read in one place. I don't know why I didn't try this before. I know that this is one of the strengths of NetNewsWire and one of the reasons I bought a copy (yes, right before it was released as a free product, I paid for it. Buy high and sell low is my motto), but I just didn't get around to trying it.

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it's pretty huge for me. I love reading and I'm a big fan of several bloggers and news sites, but I only give myself small slices of time between monkeys to enjoy this activity. With the added time savings of having my feeds synced on my iMac and iPhone, I can spend less time paging through read feeds and more time reading new stuff. Shoot, I may even be able to subscribe to some feeds I had to drop because they clogged up my iPhone Google Reader. My break times just got more fun. Thanks Brent!

I have to go now, the programming primate just hit me in the back of the head with something... and it doesn't smell like food.

Peace

I'm Really Not Good at Some Things

Yesterday was a full day of visiting with my CPA and his staff to get my tax paperwork and corporate bookkeeping current. I really suck at managing IRS paperwork and dealing with corporation stuff. It's not that I can't figure it out or don't see what needs to be done, but given the option of putting some cool new features into one of my software products or reading through tax information, I'm afraid I'm always going to choose the former, so I'm always playing catch-up with the latter.

Now that would be fine if our government rewarded me for good intentions and gave me a break for being busy but, the last time I checked, that wasn't the case. They are rather fond of just tossing late fees at me.

So here's my "do as I say, not as I do" advice for fellow microISV owners (and small business start-ups in general): Get a really good CPA—one you are comfortable with and can trust—and do it at the inception of your business. And, if you're an immersive individual like me, outsource the corporate bookkeeping/paperwork so you can focus on what you do best. It's okay to spend money on help running your operations if it frees you up to do tasks that make you more money.

Hopefully, I'll take my own advice.

Peace.

Quicken taking on MoneyWell?

Okay, this is too funny. I just got done being interviewed by Scotty about Battling Big Iron Software Companies as a Micro-ISV and then I read this article on MacRumors about Intuit rewriting Quicken to be more Mac-like. Like MoneyWell, it will be Cocoa-based and use CoreData for storage. Unlike MoneyWell, it will only be for Leopard.

Here's the quote that killed me:

Because the application is being built from the ground-up, it will initially contain only a subset of what is currently found in Quicken 2007 for Mac. While it will fully support cash-flow accounts (cash, checking, savings, credit cards), it will start with extremely limited support for investments, though you will be able to track your balances and holdings and calculate your net worth.

I'm sorry, I really don't think Intuit is looking at No Thirst Software and getting worried, but it's just a cool coincidence that yesterday I talked about how MoneyWell is young application and doesn't have as many features as Quicken, but takes better advantage of Mac technologies like CoreData and Cocoa and now this announcement comes from Intuit.

All I can say is bring it on!

Peace.

Chatting with Scotty

I had the pleasure to be interviewed by Steve "Scotty" Scott today for his Mac Software Business (MacSB) podcast. If you develop software for the Mac, Scotty's podcasts are invaluable. In addition to this business focused podcast, he also produces Late Night Cocoa and Mac Developer Roundtable. I've learned so much from all of these!

You can find this newest podcast episode here on The Mac Developer Network site. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm hoping something I said will be helpful to another developer. It's great to be able to give back a bit.

Thanks Scotty for making the interview so relaxing and enjoyable! It's gotta be your accent.

Peace.