What Business Plan Software Shouldn’t Do

By Tim Berry

The ideal business plan software doesn’t write your text or do your numbers. Instead, it helps you with the mechanics of managing the links between the different numbers, and the main topic outline, laying out the page if you need to print it, and giving you ideas, questions to answer, and suggestions. I just saw... Read More »

Pricing IQ Test You’re Sure to Fail

By Tim Berry

I admit it. Pricing is often baffling to me. Test your pricing IQ by answering these 10 simple questions. 1. Why is an iPhone application expensive at $4.99 but a magazine can sell for $6.95, and a no-frills 20-ounce cup of coffee for $2.50 without anyone getting up in arms? 2. Why is a gallon... Read More »

Goldilocks, Three Bears, and Productivity Software

By Tim Berry

You may remember that fairy tale in which Goldilocks got herself locked into a repetitive rut about choosing her optimal rocking chair, porridge, and bed softness settings. Every time, for every choice, first it was too little, too much, and then just right. There’s a lot to say about Goldilocks (and all of her consumer... Read More »

Technology vs Productivity vs Expectations, Oh My

By Tim Berry

This post title should be recited to the tune of “lions, tigers, and bears, oh my;” that is if you’re old enough to remember The Wizard of Oz, or young (at heart) enough to have seen it as a rerun. It’s rhythmic and its cyclical and it never stops. Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn are... Read More »

10 Emails That Shouldn’t Have Been Sent

By Tim Berry

Oh dear. How would you like to be the sender whose name I’ve blocked out here? Charged, apparently, with emailing a press release to bloggers, and struggling with a technical problem, he ends up creating this blight on my inbox (and probably doesn’t even know he’s done it): I count 11 repetitions, the same message, the... Read More »

Invention vs. Necessity, Upside Down

By Tim Berry

You know the phrase: Necessity is the mother of invention. Right? You hear it a lot. But what if, in fact, invention is the mother of necessity. Once the technology exists,  we then complicate things, demand more, and use up the productivity gain in raising the quality bar. Take budgets, for example. I realize it’s... Read More »

True Story: Good Idea, but Hard to Explain

By Tim Berry

Almost 20 Years ago I developed a software product called Forecaster. You start with an empty chart. Then you assign values to vertical and horizontal. Then you draw a line with your mouse, and Forecaster generates the numbers that correspond to the line. It was built as something you could use in a business plan.... Read More »

Watch your Back

By Tim Berry

I just read The Corporate Survivor’s Guide to Email on the Huffington Post. Thank God, at least this isn’t true in my world. I don’t think. I mean … is it? Is that what you meant? Here’s how this Nicholas Weinstock post starts. Now More than Ever Thank you! Translation:  F**k you.  Generally found at... Read More »