Bryan Orr (@BryanJOrr) is both a brick-and-mortal small business owner and software entrepreneur, based in Florida. In owning and operating a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) installation company, he has experimented with a great variety of project management tools and collaboration software. Following this, he ventured into the software game itself, commissioning his own system to help run the business.
He also hosts the WOW Small Business Podcast and is a co-creator of MentionTribe, an online service aimed at helping local small businesses.
 
Show Notes & Links

Bryan owns a HVAC installation business
MentionTribe
WOW Small Business Podcast
Prescott had a past life as a Mechanical Engineering draftsman
R-12 vs R-134a refridgerants
Remember The Milk and TeuxDeux, examples of “laundry list” apps
Basecamp, classic email replacement tool
Gantt Charts
Time-tracking and Invoicing
Image previewing and collaborative reviewing
“Tasking”, Bryan’s term for assigning items to different team members
Gwenyth Paltrow uses Basecamp
Bryan favours Trello for team collaboration
Kanban board, take a task through a lifecycle


Freedcamp is a free(mium) version of Basecamp
Prescott doesn’t like “glorified checklists” because not everything in life is a checkbox item
“Email needs to be taken out back, burned, and never heard from again” ← Click to Tweet
“Advanced Chat”, Bryan’s term for specified cross-talk which replaces email
Josh Miles, previous podcast guest and design firm owner
“Pictures of Success”
Eisenhower methodology
Clients should not use text messaging, especially when the recipient may be driving
Toggl, simple time-tracking but not so much invoicing
Screenshot Monitor, keeps an eye on team members up-to-the-minute
Xero, small business online accounting software; and employer of Saul Colt, past podcast guest
Starship Design, Prescott’s design company
The Wayback Machine
Password managers like Dashlane allow you to have your password on you at all times
The trouble with reference materials, “knowledge base”
Wiki software is not very user-friendly
Dropbox beats Google Drive for roll-back of individual files
Work Smarter by Nick Loper
Entrepreneur on Fire podcast

Tools

Remember The Milk
TeuxDeux
Basecamp
Harvest
Design Sign Off
Evernote and Easily Do
Trello
KanBan Flow
Freedcamp
Slack
HipChat
MindMeister
Jira from Atlassian
Workamajig
Asana
FreshBooks
FreeAgentPro
Toggl
ScreenShot Monitor
Xero
Mint
GitHub
IFTTT – If This Then That
Google Drive
Lighthouse
Pivotal Tracker
TacoApp
Dashlane
Dropbox
Kippt, bookmarking tool for teams
Gingko, non-linear writing tool

Techniques

Create new columns (“States”) in your Kanban board
Utilise a real Project Manager to make decisions and keep the project moving
Define “Pictures of Success” to demonstrate best practices within your team
Use the Eisenhower methodology to determine what’s important vs. what’s urgent
Don’t use text messaging for business
Create a method of your own to-do list
Create a method for group communication/chat
Create a method for assigning tasks
Ensure you have mobile capabilities
Experiment with mind-mapping methodologies
Build a team knowledge base so folks don’t have to ask each other for stuff all the time

Habits

Adhere to the system you create, but also test new methods
Review your personal and team to-dos at the end of each day