Erich Stauffer

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  • 10 Entrepreneur and Startup Board Games

    As an entrepreneur who is interested in startups and board games, I considered making my own entrepreneurship board game or a board game about starting up, but like any good business owner, I started with market research. It turns out there are already at least ten entrepreneur or startup board games either on the market already or in development. Some of them you may have heard of and others are brand new.

    Startup Fever by Louis Perrochon

    Set in the world of Internet startups, the pieces are employees – from engineers to salesmen to executives. Opponents try to steal them with better offers. As head of the company, you can choose to invest your resources in personnel or sales. There’s even an expansion that introduces venture capitalists and lawyers, for extra flavor. The goal, as in real-world product development, is to get the most users.

    ScrumBrawl by VicTim Games LLC (Bugher and Vic Moyer)

    The object of ScrumBrawl is to score three goals by moving orb tokens into a portal. To do so, players control fantasy creatures – 50 in all – whose characteristics determine how they interact. Players also battle each other’s creatures to keep them from scoring. At one point, the game was much more elaborate than its final version, but play testers told VicTim Games that the concept was too unwieldy.

    Fluke by Ida Byrd-Hill, Detroit, MI

    A Detroit mother has developed a board game that takes players from accidental inventions through the tricky realm of patents, portfolios and finally to corporate wealth – if they’re savvy enough. The player with the largest portfolio wins.

    GoVenture Entrepreneur Board Game by GoVenture

    Run your own business and compete, collaborate, and negotiate with other players. Game play is designed to recreate the real-life thrills and challenges of entrepreneurship in a fun and educational social learning experience. Activities are expertly designed to enable you to experience the true challenges of entrepreneurship, while at the same time, provide an engaging and experiential group learning opportunity.

    Zeros-To-Heros by Richard Mak

    Marketed as the “World’s 1st board game on Entrepreneurship” Zeros-To-Heros is the winner of MENSA Singapore SELECT Awards (2007) based on its originality, dynamic game play, ability to stimulate players’ intellect and fun. You start the game as an employee with ZERO capital and ZERO understanding of business. Take the exciting path to become your OWN BOSS and see whether you survive or become an entrepreneurial Hero.

    Hot Company® Board Game

    Students experience what it’s like to “be the boss” while experiencing the thrill of running a company and finding solutions that will lead to success. Each player or team is the “owner” of a hot new company. Roll the die, pick a card, and you’re in business! The object of the game is to get “your” company to turn a profit. Hot Company® develops a wide array of real-world business skills.

    I’m The Boss!®

    A game of deal-making and negotiation, where students are investors just trying to make a deal. Through intelligent negotiations, temporary alliances, and cut-throat bargaining, players can rake in millions. But watch out for the other investors at your bargaining table who meddle in your affairs and try to take over your deals. As the boss, you stand to gain the most, but you can find yourself quickly cut out of a deal. In the end, the winner is the investor with the most money.

    Rich Dad Cashflow for Kids

    CASHFLOW for Kids teaches children how to have money work for them. CASHFLOW for Kids is a complete educational package which includes the book “Rich Dad’s Guide to Raising Your Child’s Financial I.Q.” CASHFLOW for Kids is recommended for children ages 6 and older. Children learn the difference between good credit and bad credit, assets and liabilities, earned income and passive income, and income and expenses. Cashflow for Kids is an easy way for parents to teach their children about finance, but it requires an adult or older child who already understands the basics of finance to reinforce the lessons as they are experienced.

    Entrepreneur’s Accessory to Monopoly by The Third Dimension

    This game, subtitled “The Power-Business Venture Game”, is an unofficial expansion to Monopoly. It comes with a small board that fits exactly into the center of a standard Monopoly game board. The game plays like regular Monopoly but adds Corporations, Leverage Buyouts, Corporate Takeovers, Casinos and Financial Coups into the mix. Look for it on eBay, but Monopoly itself is a good economic game.

    Globalization by Sandstorm

    Build your global empire… one company at a time! As the head of a multi-national corporation with one goal in mind – to make money – players in Globalization attempt to outbid their competitors to acquire businesses within six different industries and grow their conglomerate. Streamline operating costs build additional factories sue your competitors or take one of your subsidiaries public for big returns! Your corporate strategy will impact which companies you buy and how to take your corporation worldwide. The first to reach a billion in net worth wins!

    Want more learning sets for kids?

  • Is Your Business Prepared for a Disaster?

    Sometimes it pays to be redundant.

    Does your business have a disaster recovery plan for business continuity? Do you know what your company would do if a single workstation, a server, or the entire building went ‘down’? These are the plans that are above and beyond baseline data back-up, which you should be doing anyway. If you’re not doing that, stop reading this and back up your data! It should always be in at least two locations with one copy preferably stored off-site.

    Disasters such as earthquakes, fires, and floods are all too common in today’s world, but sadly, business continuity plans are not. Be prepared for not only a loss of data, hardware, and facilities, but also the risk of a pandemic where a third to half of your work force either can’t come in or are sick. How would your business continue to function? Would you still be able to serve your customers? What sort of steps are you taking to prepare for a scenario like this, or worse?

    Professional Technology Consulting has years of experience helping companies design and implement disaster planning and documentation. If you or your business is in need of professional technology assistance with how to back-up your data or prepare a disaster recovery site, please contact us and we’ll set up a time to site down and get to know you and your business before ever recommending anything that you don’t need, but hopefully some things that you will find useful-and necessary-to survive the storm.

  • Best Android Email App for Google Apps Email Users

    If you have an Android phone and you use Gmail, you’re in luck. There are plenty of apps for you to choose from that work great, but if you’re a Google Apps email user, the setup is a bit more tricky with most apps because there are currently no specific Android apps for Google App users.

    What’s the difference between a Gmail account and a Google Apps account if the email looks the same in a browser?

    Google Apps users may have noticed that things are a little different than Gmail. While the mail interface is now the same, that hasn’t always been the case and you can’t login to your Google Apps account through your Gmail address, although there are options, which I’ll discuss later. While a Google App email address can become a Google account or be linked to an existing Google account, a gmail account can’t be used to access a Google Apps account directly.

    So what are my options?

    First, if you are checking your Google Apps email from Outlook or Thunderbird because that’s how you or your IT department or vendor set it up for you, great. You’ll probably need them to help you set it up on your Android phone as well. This really isn’t for you. But if you check it in a browser or on your Android mobile device already, you are who this article is for. Google provides several web addresses to login to your Google Apps email even if you don’t have a custom domain setup for it such as mail.yourcustomdomain.com. Try placing your domain name after the a/ in http://mail.google.com/a/yourdomainnamehere. Adding a ‘s’ to http makes it secure. Google will change it to https anyway because that is the new default. If you browse here on your mobile phone, chances are Google will redirect you to the mobile version. This is your best option if you want to view pictures in your email. The default Android email app with Sprint’s HTC Hero, which is what we use, does not display pictures in email because it does not support HTML email.

    So what is the best Android email app for Google Apps email users?

    If you want to see pictures in your email, use an HTML email viewer, of which there are few. This is because Google has had an inline image/html email problem with Android since 2008. MailDroid is said to have success with viewing images, but Google says that the best way is to browse to http://www.google.com/m/a/example.com where example.com is your domain. If you have a T-Mobile G1, then you have pre-installed programs for Google Apps, but otherwise, you’re out of luck and the browser is the best alternative. The only downside to using a browser is there is no push email; there is no alerts when new email is received. This means that you’re stuck constantly checking your email through the browser or not getting inline images or HTML email through your default Android app.

    The solution? Use your default Android email app for push email and syncing, but keep an icon to the web address in the browser for viewing inline images (attached images can be downloaded and viewed just fine). This is the work around until Android and it’s apps develop a little further. Remember, it’s new here.

    If you or your business needs help or support with Google Apps, please contact us and we’d be happy to consult you.

  • What Can SugarCRM Do for You?

    SugarCRM is a great customer relationship manager with pipeline management and email marketing capability.  The core Sugar modules are as follows:

    Home – The Home module provides a quick view of the relevant data and activities that you select for display.

    Accounts – Manage customer companies, entities, or even individuals if’s it’s a small business.  You can track a variety of information about an account including website URL, address, number of employees and other data. Business subsidiaries can be linked to parent businesses in order to show relationships between accounts.

    Contacts – Individual customers, essentially the various contact points within an organization. These are the individuals with whom we are doing business and we wish to target marketing activity towards.  You can track contact information such as title, email address, and phone number. Contacts are usually linked to an account.

    Opportunities – Click this tab to view the Opportunities module. Use this module to track potential customers. Opportunities help you manage your selling process by tracking attributes such as sales stages, probability of close, deal amount and other information.

    Activities – Click this tab to view the Activities module. Use this module to create or update scheduled activities, or to search for existing activities.

    Activities consist of the following sub-modules:

    Calendar – View scheduled activities (by day, week, month, or year) such as meetings, tasks, and calls. You can also share your calendar with your coworkers to coordinate your daily activities.

    Calls – Manage outbound and incoming phone calls between you and your customers.

    Meetings – Manage meetings, including both internal and external invitees, which you schedule or accept.

    Tasks – Manage a list of actions that you need to complete by a specific date.

    Notes – Manage notes and file attachments.

    Leads – Used to track potential customers.  This is the entry point into the system to know when a potential new customer is requesting information, or could even be a current customer wanting a new product.  Leads are an important aspect of the sales management process inside of SugarCRM.

    Emails – Click this tab to view the Emails module. Use this module to send, and receive emails. You can also automate email management, create email templates for automated responses, and for email-based marketing campaigns.

    Campaigns – Click this tab to view the Campaigns module. Use this module to create and manage marketing campaigns. You can implement and track marketing campaigns. These can be telemarketing, mail or email-based campaigns.

  • AVG 2012

    If you use AVG anti-virus software, which many of our clients do, you may have noticed a new pop-up that looks something like this.  It’s advertising a free upgrade to AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 or a paid upgrade to AVG Internet Security 2012.  Either one is fine and you can feel free to click the link, which should take you toAVG.com.

    The free version protects against:

    • Viruses and spyware
    • Social networks like Facebook
    • Web surfing and searching
    • Losing your identity online

    We’re currently recommending Microsoft Security Essentials to our clients.

  • Windows XP Support Ends in August, 2014

    As you may remember, even in 2011, I’m still installing XP for clients, but just so you’re aware, support for XP ends in August, 2014.

    According to Microsoft Support Lifecycle, support for Windows XP will end on August 4, 2014. Most companies still on Windows XP are skipping Windows Vistafor Windows 7, which will probably still be the dominant operating system choice for businesses in 2014. If you haven’t started testing your programs for Windows 7 compatibility, now is the time. Worst-case scenario is that you’ll have to run your XP apps within a virtualized XP PC on your desktop, but that is a pain and can take up extra system resources. Windows 7 comes with a compatibility checker that runs on install, but that’s probably not the best time to test.

    How much does Windows 7 cost?

    At Amazon.com, Windows 7 ranges from $266.22 for Ultimate to $174.99 for Home Premium:

  • Is Google Docs Cloud Computing?

    Ether Fleet’s Cloud Computing recently answered a couple of the most asked questions about cloud computing.

    A lot of people ask, “Is Google Docs Cloud Computing?” and they do a good job of answering that while Google Docs runs web-based apps such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, and forms Google Docs itself is not could computing.

    The other popular question, “Is Windows Live Cloud Computing?” is very similar, with the difference being that some Windows Live applications are local desktop apps for the PC.

    Ether Fleet is a good resource for cloud computing news.

  • How to Go from VGA to HDMI?

    I have a client using a Vostro 2510 laptop who wanted to display the contents of demonstration from the computer onto a HD TV via HDMI. Unfortunately, the Vostro 2510 only has a VGA output, which is analog, and HDMI is digital, so we needed to get a VGA to HDMI converter box. I normally recommend buying through Amazon.com, but due to time constraints, they needed to get it somewhere local like Best Buy or Fry’s Electronics.

    If you get a converter box, make sure you get an HDMI cable long enough too. They come in 6 to 50 ft cables. The converter boxes are easy to use, plug-and-play devices, but make sure it comes with a VGA cable and audio cable, too. Once you have it, it’s a matter of connecting the VGA cable and audio from your computer to the box, plugging in the converter box to a power outlet, and then run the HDMI cable from the converter box to the TV. Change the input on the tv to HDMI and you’re all set to go. Here is a video on Youtube about how to use the device I’ve linked to above.

  • White-Label Apps

    Apps that do the same thing, but can be branded for different businesses under a licensing agreement or for a large fee are white-label apps.

    Major brands, universities, chambers of commerce, and businesses are all in need of certain types of mobile apps that don’t need to be redeveloped, just re-branded. Appetyte makes trivia and location based guide applications for the iPhone.Whiteapp is “a directory of mobile applications (apps) that serve as building blocks for yours. Starting from an existing application saves a lot of creative and production cost.” Their white label apps directory featuring a shopping cart app, not 1, but 2 augmented reality apps (1 and 2, a QR reader, desk clock, and a GPS store finder – just to name a few. One other example is FormEntry, which is an app that handles forms that can be what they call “private labeled”, which is another word for “white label”.

    How the white label app purchase and rebranding process works

    Your marketing or technology agency inquires about or identifies an app that is currently available to be white-labeled and the price for re-skinning it. You then propose the idea and it’s price to your client. The client is delighted with your proposal and price and says, “Yeah, go!” Everybody discusses objectives over beers or coffee. The best method of implementation is discovered. The details are written up and agreed to. You provide the clients relevant assets (pictures, logos, text content) to the developer. The developer makes it shiny, new and awesome. The application submission and acceptance process with Apple or Android is started and once accepted, you’re published for a fraction of the cost of a totally new app development.

    Both Appetyte and WhiteApp are located in the UK, but we use an iPhone developer in the US called Orange Group Apps who we are currently in discussions with creating a white label app to reskin and sell to prospective markets all over the US. If you are interested in developing an iPhone app in Indiana or are willing to work remotely with the developer, consider Orange Group Apps. We have been really pleased with their work and they are a great couple of guys on a personal level. They have helped us through the app development process all the way through helping us manage ad networks and the Apple app submission process.