NEW PRODUCTS
SOFTWARE, HARDWARE & BOOKS
Setting the record
MeetingKing beta
Paracas Solutions LLC
http://meetingking.com
We here at New Products are astonished at
the frequency with which our colleagues
leave a meeting under the mistaken assumption that we have accepted responsibility for
some task or initiative — despite the fact that
we have no memory of having accepted extra
work, and that the agenda for the meeting
that we maintain with strict accuracy in our
heads clearly precluded our doing so. To fix
this annoying and all-too-common problem,
we’re considering MeetingKing, a Web-based
agenda-setting and minute-taking tool that’s
now in beta. MeetingKing lets you set, share
and update a meeting agenda; stay on course
during the meeting; keep track of open items
and defer new or unrelated items to a “
Parking Lot;” and quickly prepare and share
minutes, including details of all the work we
haven’t taken on.
nomenally successful in difficult times, and
the rest aren’t. Be warned, though: Like all
useful business books, it’s full of hard lessons
that shatter fond wishes. To be a “10Xer” — a
company that grows more than 10 times its
index — you have to be fanatically disciplined
in pursuit of your goals, data-driven, and constantly vigilant. You can’t even fall back on
luck, as 10Xers are no more lucky than their
run-of-the-mill competitors; instead, they’re
much more prepared to take advantage of
any luck that comes their way.
dleston is too polite to say so. Instead, in The
Vigilant Investor he describes all the many
psychological factors that render us susceptible to fraud and investment schemes that
are too good to be true. It’s vital to understand
all the different and interesting ways of being
stupid about investing if you hope to avoid
them, for yourself or for your clients. Better
still, The Vigilant Investor is full of in-depth
descriptions of investment scams, which are
always fun, and also details dozens of quick
and easy due-diligence tips.
Use their wheel
Premier Toolkit
Bookminders Inc.
www.bookminders.com
Some ask, “Why re-invent the wheel?” We
ask, “Why invent it in the first place? Someone else will take care of it.” In that spirit,
we bring to your attention the new Premier
Toolkit from Bookminders, a veteran provider of outsourced accounting services to
small businesses and nonprofits. Rather than
develop your own tools, you can license the
Toolkit to use Bookminders’ time-tested
practice management technology, which
includes online training, billing, compensation and employee-management systems.
In a hosted environment, users can also access Bookminders’ marketing and sales tools,
templates, proprietary software, and online
help systems, to help them build up a strong
bookkeeping business of their own.
Selling one-on-one
Super Rainmaker Coaching Program
Raising the Bar
www.raisingthebar.com
Most sales are made one on one, so there’s
something to be said for learning how to sell
one on one. Business development coach and
sales trainer Robin Hensley has created a new
set of custom one-on-one “Super Rainmaker
Coaching Programs” for professionals at law
and accounting firms. Aimed at managing
partners, office managing partners, practice
team leaders and “super rainmakers,” the 18-
month programs show how to boost both revenues and efficiency, with a curriculum that
covers everything from effective cross-selling
and holding others accountable for business
development, to effective delegation and how
to work with difficult clients and staff.
Write what you know
The NCI Effect: Explosive Client Growth
Plan for Accountants and CPAs
LINX Corp.; $22.95
For many writers, the hoary old chestnut
about “writing what you know” is a crippling
restriction; for Bruce Clark, head of marketing and practice sales advisor New Clients
Inc., it happens to play to his strengths. NCI
has trained firms across the country on how
to build their practices, and in The NCI Effect,
Clark shares the results of decades of experience, with practical advice on building, running, marketing and selling a CPA practice.
The enemy is you
The Enemy of Engagement: Put an End
to Workplace Frustration — and Get the
Most from Your Employees
Amacom; $25.95
Will Beth get senior management to listen
to her prediction of disaster? Will Lauren
manage to head off a bloody mutiny in the
call center? Will Stacy be seduced by that
new job, even though her heart is with her
old one?* Ordinarily, we’re leery of business
books that fictionalize management issues,
but we found The Enemy of Engagement’s
made-up sections (every other chapter)
unexpectedly compelling, not least because
they offer very concrete, practical solutions
to the imagined problems. More important,
they illustrate the important issue of all the
different ways management gets in the way
of dedicated employees. The enemy of engagement, it turns out, is you.
Spoiler Alert: Yes, yes, and — heartbreakingly — yes.
When Jim Collins speaks
Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos
and Luck — Why Some Thrive Despite
Them All
Harper Business; $29.99
Given the near-scriptural status of Jim Collins’
Good to Great, we expect that his new book,
Great by Choice (co-written with Morten
Hansen), will be eagerly devoured — as well
it should be, given the fascinating insights
it offers into why some companies are phe-
Blamable victims
The Vigilant Investor: A Former SEC
Enforcer Reveals How to Fraud-Proof
Your Investments
Amacom; $24.95
A really good fraudster doesn’t have to steal
his victims’ money: They give it to him. And
why do they do that? Because they’re stupid
— though former SEC enforcer Pat Hud-
Scanning for QB
Desktop Capture for QuickBooks
OKI Data Americas
www.okidata.com
OKI Data Americas has released Desktop
Capture for QuickBooks, a solution that
works with its line of multi-function printers to streamline scanning processes. It lets
users seamlessly scan physical documents
and transfer them into QuickBooks Attached
Documents, so they’ll have one-click access
to electronic copies of things like contracts,
invoices, change orders and more in QB.
New and improved!
Thomson Reuters has released an Android-compatible version of Mobile CS, its app for
accessing and entering data into its Practice
CS practice management solution. Mobile CS
already works for various Apple i-devices.
