The CurdBee Weekly #4 with Gladstone Taylor
The Weekly took a break last week because we were busy with the Partial Payments Update, but we’re back with some cool stuff for you to read. In this issue, Caribbean photographer and CurdBee user Gladstone Taylor says hello and then we jump right into what people think about our newest update. Finally we wrap it up with an open question to our users. Go on then, jump right in!
User Spotlight – Gladstone Taylor
One of the joys of running a service for freelancers and small businesses is meeting cool new people all the time. While in our two previous weekly interviews we spoke to a designer and a marketeer, this time we’re going to meet someone a little different. A photographer who specialises in weddings, events and people, Gladstone Taylor hails from sunny Jamaica and among other things also uses CurdBee. Below, we get to know him and ask him why he chose to join the hive.
Introduce yourself to our readers. Who is Gladstone Taylor? What makes him tick?
I’m a 24 year old creative that recently moved from a technical field of web application programming, my previous occupation of four years. I’ve been practising photography on an amatuer level for as long as I can remember and got really serious about it within the last 3 years. Currently I freelance for a local newspaper company in Jamaica as well as provide photography services for my own client base.
How did you hear about CurdBee, and as a photographer, why did you choose it over the other invoicing options available to you?
I heard about Curdbee from another creative and friend Monique Powell, the brain behind Roaming Donkey. I was at the time using Blinksale and testing Freshbooks. On introduction to CurdBee, I switched instantly because of the simplicity of the interface and just how intuitive it was. Freshbooks was overkill for my needs and Blinksale just didn’t hit the spot like CurdBee did for me.
Why do you use CurdBee Standard Edition instead of PRO? Are there no advanced features you’d find useful, or are you just waiting for the right time to upgrade?
I use Curdbee standard because paypal isn’t a payment option when you choose to upgrade. However I have tried the pro edition and did love it. I enjoyed the ability to create estimates the most instead of actually making an invoice and then the client decides to cancel or shop around.
What other desktop and web applications do you use on a regular basis?
Web apps: the Google docs suite
Desktop applications: Photoshop, Lightroom, Google Chrome and Seesmic for twitter :)
Bee Supported
Our latest update brings in the option to let clients pay up in instalments, and here’s how you can take advantage of the feature.
- Create a new invoice. If you’re new to CurdBee, you may want to check out this guide on creating and sending your first invoice.
- As usual, fill the relevant fields you would require when creating an invoice and scroll down to Payment Options where you may need to check the check box next to Allow partial payments to allow this option for the out going invoice.
Hive Mind
In Hive Mind this week we’re going to boast a little about our release early, release often philosophy and the positive user feedback it often generates. Here’s what people had to say about our recent Partial Payments Update.
@curdbee Thank you for listening to your users and CONSISTENTLY making your products better and simpler. You continue to impress!
Quick props to another favorite web app: @curdbee – nice work guys.
Whoo Hoo ! Estimates and partial payments with www.curdbee.com @curdbee online invoicing…
@curdbee I love you!
That’s not all, though – our giveaway on AppStorm got some people excited as well. Congratulations to Melissa, Elena and Jackstin on winning a $150 CurdBee bundle featuring a year’s subscription of PRO and the Authorize.net and Estimates Modules.
Melissa: A free Pro Curdbee account would be fantastic!
I’ve been eyeing it for a bit, I love the features at such a low cost. The domain support is fantastic, and I just love the overall feel of Curdbee.
I’m starting up a small web hosting company and would need all the help I could get as a two-team start up. I think having a Pro Curdbee account tied to my domain would be very professional, and it would keep down a bit of the start up cost. A little goes a long way!
Nothing else puts a smile on our face like seeing a new startup take on the world, and we’re glad that CurdBee will be helping yet another SME get off the ground. Good luck, Host My Heart. Hope you guys have a cracker first month!
Finally, user Wes is hungry for stats and wants to know if we’ll introduce a feature that allows him to “see what items are past due (red flags), how much is past due, and filter income by month, quarter, and year.”
We’re stoked to say that yes, this feature is currently in development, and when released will most probably be available to all users. In typical CurdBee style though, we’ll also release a Module which offers more advanced features, including cool stuff like graphs. Excited about the Statistics Module? Let us know and keep reading the weekly for more updates on it.
Buzz Back
We debut our community feedback feature this week by asking a very important question –
So, why are we asking? We’re putting together something sweet for Thanksgiving, and we want to make sure that we give as many of you as possible exactly what you want. To that end, also please feel free to leave your thoughts below or tweet and mail us.
