Operating a business in Quebec means sometimes having to write documents in both English and French.  Since most people are usually native speakers in only one language (in my case, English), writing in their second language can sometimes be problematic.  I usually have friends double check my French documents (e.g. emails) before sending them out.  However, this whole review process can be time consuming.

Enter a new feature from Google Docs.  At the click of a button, you can translate your text into your choice of 42 languages.  All have to do is select the text in your Google document, click ‘Translate Document’ and then select your language.

I haven’t tried all 42 languages, but I can definitely vouch for the English to French and French to English translators. I remember how not too long ago, the quality of online translators was extremely poor, sometimes even comical.  Since then, however, there has been some major improvements.

I still wouldn’t rely on this tool as my sole translator.  In other words, it is still necessary for a native speaker to proofread the translation.  However, it is much better than starting a translation from scratch. From my experience, It also reduces the time needed for proofreading by at least 50%.

A thumbs up once again to Google for thinking of another cool way to make our lives easier.

• Open Office:  A great software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases.  It is basically an alternative to Microsoft Office, but without the $500 price tag.  As the name suggests, it is open source, meaning it is free to download and use for any purpose.  It is also compatible with Microsoft Office so you can open all your old Word and Excel files.
• Google Apps:  Outsource your email management to Google.  The great thing about Google Apps is that you can apply it directly to your existing domain and it works in the backend without anyone knowing.  So you can create an email account related to your website (e.g. john@ilovedogs.com) and use Google to manage your inbox. The free version allows up to 50 users and 25 gigabytes of storage per user.   You can also use a third party client like Outlook or Thunderbird if you don’t want to use Google’s web interface.  Other Google Apps functions besides email include  Google Calendar, Google Sites (e.g. can use to create an internal website for  employees), Google Docs (think free online version of Microsoft Office), and Google Video.
• Sugar CRM:  Customer Relationship Management (CRM) allows you to capture all your customers’ information and store it centrally in one location.  You can also record any interactions and update customer files.  A commercial CRM system like Salesforce will cost you between $100 and $780 per user every year (standard or professional version).  Enter Sugar CRM, the open source (i.e. free) alternative.   Though there are different editions, the free or Community edition has about 85% of the functionality of the Professional and Enterprise editions.  You can integrate it directly into your website so it can be accessed anywhere where there is an Internet connection.
• Intelligent Office:  Dont’ want to commit to a 5 year lease for a commercial office?  How about a virtual office?  With Intelligent Office, you can rent commercial office space and conference rooms by the hour.  The company also provides  remote and on-site receptionist services and admin support services.
• Amazon S3:  I like the idea of an online backup since it is more secure than leaving an external hard drive lying around the house.  There are tons of companies out there that provide online backup of your data, but they usually want a monthly subscription.  There free versions offer a ridiculously small amount of storage space.  With Amazon S3, you only pay for what you use and for $0.15 per gigabyte, you don’t pay much.  Encryption is also top of the line from what I read.
• PowerFolder:  This one took me a while to find, but it was well worth the effort.  The problem I have with Windows FolderShare (which is free) is that every person you share a file with has to register first for the service.  This is very annoying if you don’t already have an id (e.g. hotmail address) and all you want to do is use the folder sharing function.  PowerFolder is the open source alternative.  There is no need to sign up.  Just download the program, install, and you’re ready to go.  You can can send out invitations by email or even save the invitation file on a USB and give access to computers of your choice.
• XMind:  I’m a big fan of mindmapping.   I use it for everything from brainstorming to summarizing key areas of my startup.  The problem is that mindmapping software can be very pricy (e.g. $350 for MindManager).  I recently discovered XMind and after using it for about 5 minutes, I was completely sold.  I find it a lot more user friendly than FreeMind, the other free alternative.  There is a professional version available for a low cost of $49 per year (subscription based).

I was out of action the last 3 days.  No posts on my blog.  No working on my business plan.  No sleep until 3 or 4 in the morning.  All this stress because of a trojan (malicious software) I accidentally downloaded called ‘Virtumonde’.  It absolutely crippled my computer.  Although I had a backup of all my important files, they weren’t the latest versions.   I was also afraid of losing all my emails in the past year, which I neglected to backup.

Thanks to a lot of perseverance and a few helpful pointers from the friendly people at the Mozilla online forum, I was able to fix the problem and recover all of my files and emails.  As I’m breathing a lot easier now, I’ve had the chance to reflect on the last few days.  Here are some hard lessons I learned thanks to my ordeal:

1.  Always have a backup (preferably two) of all your important files.  Having just one can be risky (picture a fire in your home or office; there goes your computer along with your external hard drive (i.e. the backup) in your cabinet).   If you insist on having just one, don’t keep it in the same location as the original source.  I use an external hard drive as my first backup.  I also recommend you use an encryption software like TrueCrypt (www.truecrypt.org) to add another layer of protection.   My second backup is Amazon S3 (http://aws.amazon.com/s3/), an online storage service by Amazon.  Some of their great features include:  no monthly fees or commitments, full encryption, automatic backups, and a great rate of 15 cents per gigabyte stored.

2.  There’s beauty in simplicity.  Afraid of losing all my ‘precious’ files, I went through all of my folders to make sure everything was intact.  This search made me realize that many of these files were in fact, not that ‘precious’ (e.g. audiobook of Aesop’s fables, e-books on how to master AutoCad, etc.)  I got rid of these unnecessary files and reduced/re-organized all my folders.  One of my favorite things to do is getting rid of clutter, both in my physical environment as well as inside my computer.  I find it clears and sharpens my thinking.  I was reading an article on Bruce Lee a few weeks back and he had a beautiful quote on the topic.  He said:

“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease.  Hack away at the unessential.”

This applies in the business realm as well.  Can you explain what your business does in a single sentence?  What about in a single word?  What are the essential and inessential parts?  Who are your key customers and who are the ones you can do without?  What is your key product or service?  How are you spending your time?  Are you just keeping yourself busy most of the day doing things that are urgent but really unimportant in the long run?  When I started researching my business idea of launching a language training institute for the corporate sector, I spent a lot of time keeping myself busy.  I tried to meet anyone and everyone.  I tried to read anything and everything.  I was getting things done, but I had no central focus.  The constant activity made me feel good about myself though in reality, I wasn’t making progress.  I now do my best to start every day by writing down a few things I want to accomplish that are essential and important.  It might take me a mere half hour to complete these tasks, but at the end of the day, I feel like I made progress and moved forward.  Simplify, reduce, eliminate.

3.  Harness the power of OpenSource software.  For those unfamiliar with tech lingo, the term essentially refers to free programs created through the joint efforts of programmers worldwide.  Startups should give some serious thought to open source since they can save a lot of money in licensing costs (I wouldn’t recommend having ‘free’ pirated software installed in your workstations).  So instead of spending a few hundred dollars on Windows, consider using Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com), a Linux based operating system.  Instead of Microsoft Office, you can use Open Office (www.openoffice.org) which has an equivalent to Word, Excel, Power Point, and Access and is also compatible with the Office suite.  Instead of Internet Explorer, use Firefox (www.mozilla.com/firefox).  Instead of Microsoft Outlook, use Thunderbird (www.mozilla.com/thunderbird).  There’s even open source for CRM software (customer relationship management) called VTiger (www.vtiger.com), a free version of SalesForce.com.  The one drawback of open source is that technical support is restricted to online forums.  However, if needed, you can pay a little extra for technical support for you and your staff.

4.  This brings me to my last and most important lesson, and that is to NEVER put your complete trust in technology.  When I was young, I bought myself a small electronic organizer.  After using it for about a year, I grew very attached to this small device.  Imagine my shock when both the primary and backup batteries died at the same time, erasing all of my contacts.  I was so upset that I decided never to use ‘fancy’ technology ever again.  Of course, I soon realized that my blind trust in technology was more to blame than anything else.  Also, the truth is, I was never really attached to the electronic organizer itself.  The emotional attachment came from what was inside the organizer (i.e. all of my personal and professional contact information, birthdays, notes, etc.).

Machines can and will break down.  How is your business taking this into account in day to day planning?  For instance, I am trying to launch a language training institute targeting the corporate sector.  Naturally, we will be using things like a laptop, projector, etc. to deliver presentations.  However, on any given day, any or all these things can malfunction.  Yet, this breakdown does not alleviate our responsibility to offer a superior product to our customer.  This can be done without Power Point slides, without fancy multimedia, etc.  Obviously, this is not always possible for all businesses, but the key point to remember is to have contingency plans in case of a breakdown in technology.