FreshBooks Supper Club February 2009

Is it February already? Wow... we were so crazy busy reviewing the fine print on health club memberships and creating the most perfect conditions for that groundhog guy that we almost forgot to write an intro to this month’s Supper Club. But like a visit from the mailman delivering your ShamWow, we know you count on this intro because without it you wouldn’t know that this month’s Supper Club is jammed packed with FreshBooks goodness delivered directly to your inbox etc. So cozy up with some soup, get the bread out of the oven and enjoy the goings on from your friends at FreshBooks!

News & Stuff From Inside the FB Walls

FreshBooks Has Its Very Own iPhone App, and We Open Sourced the Thing!

All you need to do is look outside to see the world is changing. It wasn’t so long ago that you pretty much had to “know someone” to learn to develop your own iPhone app. This bothered us because we know how smart all the FreshBooks faithful are... so we decided that once we made our own iPhone Time Tracking app (and knew it worked) we would set it free into the world like a beautiful dove. Yes, this is a reasonably long winded way of saying that we have open sourced the FreshBooks iPhone app making what was once ours, now yours. Take the code, see how it works, play with it and do some super stuff with your new found knowledge. To find the code and more information check out this awesome post written by our very own Sunir Shah.

Best Contest Ever?

We Love You. You know that right?

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and while we don’t need a calendar to remind us to express our affection for you all we are going to opportunistically use that little cherub guy to do something fun with you all. So here is the deal. Anyone who shoots a short video explaining why they love FreshBooks (and make sure you say who you are and what you do) and fires it up to YouTube (with tags so we can find it) will get a video in return saying why we love you back... oh and the best video will get a super cool love inspired prize of some kind.

Nothing would make me happier if my next month is filled with nothing but making videos for you all so please let’s make this huge!

Worst Contest Ever?

A little while ago we tried something a little different on the FreshBooks blog and let me tell you it went over as well as Kool Aid in Jonestown. Ya see we hid a secret contest inside the last Supper Club and told people to find it. Well the lesson I learned was that you can’t hide things too well because if it wasn’t for Connie Crosby (Hi Connie!) with her one comment on the post it would have been nothing but crickets. Anyway I still want to give away the prize for this so go check it out and here is a HUGE clue. Two of the three videos are connected with a kiss.

Sometimes It Really Is Who You Know!

One of the coolest things about working at FreshBooks is the people... and by “people” we mean the folks inside these walls, you guys and gals and of course all the amazing people we get to meet while being out in the world. We are always making new friends because, well friends are awesome! One of our newest friends is the good folks at Moo.com. You know Moo.com, they are the specialty business card and printing company that lets you customize cards with pictures from Flickr and a slew of other cool features (wow... I am totally gushing here). What I am trying to say is that Moo.com thinks FreshBooks folks are awesome and are extending you all a $25 discount on any order of 200 business cards. So go check them out and don’t forget to use the offer code Fresh009.

So You Say You Want a Revelation... Well Ya Know.

Not sure if you heard about this but a few weeks ago Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th POTUS. Now we at FreshBooks don’t like to get political so this isn’t an endorsement or anything but we will go on record that we loved the Shepard Fairey (ObeyGiant.com) Red White and Blue Obama Posters... and so did FreshBooks Customer and Friend Dubi Kaufmann... he liked it so much that he created an “OBAMAFY” plug-in for Photo Booth on the Mac. So if you want to look just like a leader of the free world go download the plug-in and make a change!

Quick Hits

-->  FreshBooks is making it even easier for freelancers and solopreneurs to manage their business because it now integrates with the Oprius CRM tool!

-->  IAC-EZ brings full online bookkeeping to FreshBooks. Now you can balance your books in FreshBooks.

-->  ...and finally, we have learned a bunch of lessons this past year. Here is lesson #3. Enjoy!