The 25 most popular icebreaker questions based on four years of data

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If you need a get-to-know-you question for team-building at work that isn’t trite and terrible, here are 25 to try out… If you winced at the word, “icebreaker,” I don’t blame you. Get-to-know-you questions and games tend to feel cheesy. We’ve all been victim to a terribly trite icebreaker with coworkers that made us roll our… keep reading

New Year, New Updates for Basecamp 3 on Android

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We’ve updated the Basecamp 3 Android app to coincide with the launch of the Basecamp 3 refresh. What’s new? 💨 Navigation takes you to Projects and Teams faster 🗺 Sticky titles and breadcrumbs keep you from getting lost 🎨 Themes and overall styling updated to match the refresh 💨 Navigation takes you to Projects and… keep reading

You don’t have to take every handout or jump through every loophole

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You don’t have to agree with Uncle Sam on how he conducts all of his affairs to accept that “starving the beast” isn’t a path that leads anywhere good long term. Basecamp used to take two common business deductions called the domestic manufacturing credit (§199) and the Research & Development credit. Both of these tax credits… keep reading

How do you fire someone well?

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I don’t think a “best way” to fire someone exists — but here’s a stab at trying to do it with dignity, grace, and respect. I fired someone last year. Ugh. It was gut-wrenching. I’ve fired people before — but it doesn’t matter how many times you do it, it always feels downright terrible. To prepare for the difficult conversation,… keep reading

Exiting the dark ages of capitalism

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Stop squeezing so hard Squeezing out every last dollar from a relationship will leave it sour and dry. That goes whether the relationship is between a company and its workers, a company and its customers, or a company and its suppliers. It’s a two-dimensional, flat, and antagonistic relationship. It’s also frequently completely unnecessary, and nearly always… keep reading

Insignificant details

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We hired a professional photographer this Christmas and he almost lost our business. My wife is one of four kids. One of those kids has four kids. We have a kid. Another sister has two kids. There’s a lot of us. And this Christmas we finally had most of us together. So my wife took… keep reading

Everything I know about marketing I learned from the 1990 movie “Crazy People.”

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For many many many people, the term “marketing” is interchangeable with words like “spin,” “flim-flam,” “malarkey,” and of course, “bullshit.” You can’t really blame people who think this way. A huge amount of marketing is reality-ignoring bullshit/spin/hokum/snake oil. This fact — that marketing is mostly poppycock — is the foundation that the movie Crazy People builds on. For anyone… keep reading

New in Highrise — our Small Business CRM

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Saved Filters, Bulk Email Improvements, And More Happy New Year! We hope you had a great time celebrating the holidays and the end of 2017. It’s been a cold start to ours here at Highrise Headquarters in Chicago, but we’re thawing out now. Though it’s back to 7F next week. Oh well, it keeps us inside… keep reading

Small

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My 3 year old daughter is in school. Most of her classmates are older than her. She keeps up great. But she reported to us recently, that many kids have called her small. And it makes her feel bad. It’s easy to just chalk this up to kids being naive. “Hey kid, comparing your age… keep reading

Start Making Something

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Illustration by Mike Rohde New year, new you! If you started 2018 with an idea for a product, business, or creative pursuit, now is the time to start making something. In this episode: A tabletop game designer finds that sometimes, all you need to get going is a pack of index cards and a pencil; a… keep reading