Do we take Golf Tracker to the next level? January 23, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General, Stuchbury Associates , add a commentA while ago, I thought it would be great to have an easy to use, stand-alone application to record my golf scores, and show me how I was progressing over time. So, I developed a little application called Golf Tracker. I then forgot the master password (yes, yes, I know - always write down every password in at least three places…), so I had to start again.
A bit of research showed that this was a commercially viable application, with a market to sell it to, so a commercial application it became. I spent a bit of money plavcing adverts in golf club diaries, with a company called Graham Cumming Group. Unfortunately, they screwed up the artwork for at least one diary, and don’t appear to have bothered to print the others, so that was largely a waste of time. Consequently, I put the Golf Tracker project to one side and haven’t done much with it.
The opportunity remains to tweak it, get some really nice looking graphs integrated into it, and invest some time and money into getting some results.
To answer the question…
Yes, but not just yet. I need to invest some time in generating some serious interest in the product and in opening multiple channels to market. Then, it’ll take off.
POS in FileMaker - The Verdict January 21, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General, FileMaker Pro , add a commentFollowing on from my last post, I’ve been able to consider our options with regard to developing a commercial Point Of Sales system in FileMaker Pro. The short answer is “we’re not going to do it at the moment”, and the long answer is below…
There is, without doubt, an opportunity here. My research suggests that whilst there are a few POS systems specifically for the independent retailer on the market, the user interface of those that I’ve researched leaves a little to be desired, which suggests that ease of use is potentially an issue. Our experence is in the B2B sector, and I want to maintain this as it’s a sector I understand - know very little about the consumer market and don’t currently see the real need to change this.
The key reasons for leaving this opportunity then, are:
- Lack of understand of B2C marketplace
- Lack of understand of retail sector
- Unsure about return on time investment due to this lack of understanding
I am currently investigating a number of other application opportunities, and will post details here as soon as I’m able to.
POS in FileMaker January 11, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General, FileMaker Pro , add a commentIt is very possible, I don’t doubt, and has probably been done elsewhere, but I wonder how commercially viable it would be to develop a POS system, in FileMaker Pro? I can see how it’d work, or at least the basics of it, in my mind, but I’m not going to put hours of work into something that isn’t going to generate sufficient return.
It would be great to talk to an independent retail business about their views on such a system, and perhaps enlist their opinions throughout development, probably in exchange for a complimentary license. One such business cones to mind, but I’m not sure about their willingness to adopt new technology - not that ePOS is new, but to them, it would be!
I’ll put some initial thoughts together, and see how it pans out. I won’t be able to share these thoughts here, to protect our intellectual property, but I will share the decisions made as a result.
Time Management - My Weakness January 11, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General , add a commentOne of my biggest weaknesses is time management. I find myself getting side-tracked easily, and then end up running out of time to do the things I should be doing. I pledged to start resolving this by using OneNote to create a to-do list for each week, and aim to have everything ticked-off by the end of the week. This is working reasonably well, but I think I need to print this list and stick it to my wall above my desk, therefore providing an always-on visual reminder. The downside to this is it moves in the opposite direction to my move towards an ‘as-paperless-as-possible’ office - some things just have to be on paper, original signed client contracts & sign-off forms, for example, need to be kept in the relevant file, and people will insist on sending invoices through the post.
I’ve not used a project management system for managing & scheduling client projects before, but I was thinking the other day that this could be a really effective solution. I even had a conversation with someone this afternoon about his requirement for a project management system, so this could be the next step in improving my time management, and helping others do the same.
Web Viewer in FileMaker 8.5 January 10, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : FileMaker Pro , add a commentThe first time I saw the Web Viewer control, I thought “that’s useful, I might use that one day”. Then I came across a method of creating graphs & charts in Flash, using the Web Viewer control to display an HTML page with the .swf embedded.
The attached .zip file was obtained from FileMaker and details three techniques to achieve different results, with different levels of complexity. I am about to re-develop one of my solutions, Golf Tracker - a golf score management system, to include charts presented this way, as it is much more professional-looking than the way I did it before, using calculation fields. I won’t go into detail about that now, but if you want to know how I did it, let me know.
I’m sure there are loads of other uses for charts, and the Web Viewer control, and as I come across specific applications for me, I’ll post them here for all to see.
Getting back into it January 10, 2007
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business In General , add a commentI had an email this morning from a guy called Robert Jackson - we’d never spoken before, but he came across this blog, presumably via Google or similar. I’d never had a contact like that, and it re-ignited a blogging spark from a few months back when I originally created this blog.
So, with that spark re-ignited, it’s time to get back into it, and blog here regularly. I’ve had some tips from a few people about content, but feel free to comment on a parcicular post if you agree, disagree, or whatever.