Supper Club Newsletter: Contests, Videos and Lots of Goodies

With Canadian Thanksgiving behind us, U.S. Thanksgiving approaching and the Holiday Season just around the corner it’s no wonder the mood here at FreshBooks HQ is fun and festive.

So before we put 2009 in “the books” we thought we’d to serve up some delights with festive theme because, frankly, we’ve got so many great reasons to celebrate in 2009.

And it starts with all of you, our super rad customers, fans and friends who make working at FreshBooks so much fun. Thanks to all of you for the great calls and emails, for the blog posts, tweets and “high fives!” at events...all the things you do that make us so thankful to have the best customers – ever!

So, with that, it’s time to sit back, relax, undo that top button and digest what is surely our most festive Supper Club to date - chock full of the freshest news from inside the FreshBooks walls delivered straight to your inbox.

Super Festive Contest - Win a $100 Gift Basket for your favorite client

When we said we were in a fun and festive mood we weren’t kidding. A great client can make all the difference on your business, and letting them know how great they are returns the favour.

So, here’s the plan.

Send us an email telling us about that one client you love to work with, and who reminds you of why you went into business in the first place.

We’ll select the top ten responses and send those clients an awesome seasonal gift basket worth $100 full of all kinds of goodies on your behalf. We’ll also let them know that they won the “best client ever” contest we ran around the world.

How cool is that?

So, take a few minutes to enter and get your top client a super gift for the holidays, courtesy of FreshBooks.

Use FreshBooks to connect with other apps to drive your business

Making life easy for small businesses is what FreshBooks is all about, and while we help with your invoicing and bookkeeping we know you need other great software services throughout the day to help you save time and be more professional.

So, we are thankful for some of the other really cool apps that connect with FreshBooks to help you drive your business. In fact, one of the coolest things we’ve done with our friends is create The Small Business Web where customer-obsessed software companies have come together, integrated their products and generally make life easier for small business owners.

It’s like having a virtual business-suite of products – but you get to choose the ones that are best for your business. And because we all focus on what we do best, you don’t have to compromise on any service to get them all.

	Today we’d like to introduce you to four of the key brands we connect with or that connect with each other to help you run your business. Each has also been kind enough to provide FreshBooks customers with an exclusive offer to get started if their service is something for you.

		Mailchimp - A powerful and easy-to-use email marketing service. Get $25 off* any paid subscription – activate by clicking here.
		BatchBook - An easy-to-use social CRM service that helps you organize your contacts, track social networking activity and manage communications. Get 1 month free* - click to activate offer.
		Shoeboxed - Turn your pile of receipts and business cards into secure online software for managing your expenses, receipts and business contacts. Get $10 off any annual package* - activate by clicking here.
		Outright - Automatically import, record, and categorize businesses transactions for your Schedule C and prepare quarterly tax estimates, your P&L, and business reports. Outright is 100% free and you can sign up here.

Be sure to check out all of our add-ons and integrations. Want FreshBooks to play nice with other online applications? Send us your request.

Boston Rocks with Mike’s Build a Web App Workshop

Hello Boston! “Wow” is about all we can say about our visit to Boston. About 30 folks from the Bean Town area came out to our first workshop away from our home turf, listened and participated as Mike shared his experiences on building a business -- from your founding team to marketing to where funding comes from and beyond. Two people even came in all the way from Chattanooga, TN!

Some of the cool web apps people told us they were working on include task management software, a virtual phone system and even add-ons to FreshBooks. It was awesome spending the day with you guys chatting, munching on tasty sandwiches and bowling at Fenway Park. Thanks to the fine folks at Grasshopper for lending us their space and making everyone feel welcome and happy to be there.

Next stop: Vancouver and Chicago! If you’re building a web app or startup, this is the place to be to learn the A to Zs of building your business. For more information and to register, visit here (Vancouver) and here (Chicago). And there’s still time to bring a workshop to your town. Vote here and tell us where our next stop is!

Supper Club IRL

You may have picked up on this by now, but we really like you guys! The Supper Club newsletter is our best effort to connect with all of you online – but nothing beats the Supper Club in real life.

Customer dinners rock and it’s been awesome seeing them grow from intimate dinners of a handful of customers to now becoming big events with 30 to over 50 customers showing up.

Rayanne was in Orlando at the end of October and took about a dozen fresh Floridians out for some Chinese food and giant cake.

Then, Mitch and Rayanne enjoyed some s’mores in shot form with fellow Blog World Expo attendees in Vegas.

And Mike, Rayanne and FreshBooks customers had dinner Bean Town style before our Boston How to Build a Web App Business Workshop.

So, please keep an eye on our travels (hint: take a look at the events sidebar to your right!) and your inbox for an invite to dinner when we’re around – we’d love to say “Hello” and introduce you to some other super cool FreshBooks customers in your city.

FreshBooks Everywhere!

As you know it’s our goal at FreshBooks to show up everywhere. We hope a day or week does not go by where FreshBooks fans everywhere don’t hear something directly from us, whether it is through our RockStar Support, Twitter, our Fresh Thinking Blog or one of your blogs.

So, to stay on the theme of being everywhere, Mike has a number of speaking gigs coming up all across North America and and we’d love to have you come out to cheer, learn and say “Hello”.

Here’s where Mike’s going to be:

Impact National Conference 2009 November 20-21 Toronto, Canada		Cyberposium 15 November 21 Cambridge, MA		Vancouver Enterprise Forum November 24 Vancouver, Canada
How to Build a Web App Business Workshop November 25 Vancouver, Canada		Going Solo: Advice for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses November 30 Toronto, Canada		Sales 2.0: Focus on the Future of Selling December 3 Cambridge, MA
How to Build a Web App Business Workshop December 8 Chicago, IL

Our Newest Support Rockstar Graduates Super Mario Style

For those who don't know, every new hire at FreshBooks starts in Support. At least two full months in fact. Frankly there’s no better way to learn our customers and our product then to be on the front lines. The really cool thing is that when their Support training is completed they officially become a Support Rockstar and we hold a crazy graduation ceremony. We do this for each individual person. And it is always a total surprise for the person.

On Tuesday, Tim Lee, our latest Support Rockstar graduated Super Mario style (he’s a big Mario fan). We surprised Tim by turning the entire FreshBooks HQ into the first stage of Super Mario Bros. We made him go through the entire “level” as Mario. It was ridiculously awesome! Watch the video.