Links, recommendations etc.

[David Braziel]

I wanted to recommend to everyone the podcast of Radio 4s In Business this week. Its an interview with Tim Smit of the Eden Project. A very interesting approach to management.

At the end of it I thought - If Im not going to work for myself I think Id like to work for an organisation like that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/inbusiness/inbusiness.shtml

I was going to post a thread just on this but I thought it might be useful to have a general thread for recommending web links, podcasts, radio, tv etc.

Anyone else want to point us to something useful?

[Madelaine Kirke]

I was about to post a thread showing anyone who hasn't found it yet, Vistaprint

http://www.vistaprint.co.uk

they are a very cheap and efficient printer BUT never buy anything at the standard price - wait until it is "free" - you will get endless "free" offers - you just pay their "postage" charge.

Probably you all know about them but maybe not.

[Kelvin Jones]

Can I just add that I used VistaPrint to get some business cards printed out, and the final quality was very dissapointing.

They may be ok for personal stuff, but I won't be using their services again.

[Madelaine Kirke]

well, of course you can add it - but they are adequate for cards to use as compliments slips in mail order stuff - perhaps not for consultancy type business but adequate for retail.

[Brett Hollis]

I have to agree with Kelvin I'm afraid. When we're talking about first impressions and quality, Vistaprint fall far short.

If anyone wants a set of our (Fibre) stationary, send me a PM, and I'll post you out a set.

[David Braziel]

To carry on the discussion about printers etc. I have been wanting a set of business cards for a while now. I was going to give vistaprint a go but the comments here put me off. So after a bit of searching I just tried out MOO- a very smart looking web 2.0 printing business.

The cards they produce are not strictly speaking business cards - they are smaller - but they could be used as business cards and they would be excellent for any creative businesses.

In I the end I figured that for about £10 for 100 cards it was worth a punt - if Im lucky Ill end up with a set of business cards that look a bit different to everyone elses.

I have to say that the style and ease of use of the MOO site is excellent. When the product arrives I'll let you know what I think.

David.

[Kelvin Jones]

I've heard nothing but good things about moo. Let us know what your impressions are of the moo cards when they arrive.

[David Braziel]

I should probably warn you that if anyone out there is seriously allergic to cute - this probably isnt the service for you.

Shortly after placing my order I got an email saying:

"I'm Little MOO - the bit of software that will be managing your order
with us. It will shortly be sent to Big MOO, our print machine who will
print it for you in the next few days. I'll let you know when it's done
and on its way to you."

Ahhhhh bless.

[David Braziel]

My Moo cards arrived this morning and I can report that the quality is very very good.

The cards are presented very well in a solid box - they are all cleanly cut and feel very thick and heavy - almost like plastic - which is great.

The colours are slightly more muted than I expected but that could be my choice of images (I used Moos own image gallery).

All in All I am very happy. I wish I'd worked out how to put my logo on before I ordered ... but we live and learn.

If anyone wants to see a sample card all they have to do is ... ask me to do some work for them !

8-)

David.

[Ben Smith]

This is an unbelievably shameless plug. But my company does make something useful small business Heap CRM.

http://heap.wbpsystems.com/

[Alex Bellinger]

You're right, certainly is shameless. May even be desperate ;)

[Alex Bellinger]

As for Moo, I've been given a few business cards by people who've got them done by Moo and they're terrific. Haven't looked into it myself (having fallen for the Hugh MacLeod business cards myself), but are Moo cards entirely based on your flickr photo collection?

[David Braziel]

The Moo cards can be based on your flickr collection but they dont have to be - you can just choose images from Moos own gallery. I was really just trying it out so I used their photos.

Im really pleased with them - I just want to give them away to people.