Grasslands

Meet Jonathan Kay, our Ambassador of Buzz here at Grasshopper:

Remember the Seinfeld episode where George decides to create a catchy jingle for his answering machine?

Aside from a website, your phone greeting could be the first impression customers or potential customers have of your business. While it doesn't have to be as clever as George's, it's important that it sounds professional and helps the caller with what they are looking for.

Here are a few tips for creating a main greeting:

• Make sure there is no distracting background noise i.e. ambulances racing by, phones ringing, tv commercials.

• When using background music, make sure you choose music that fits your business. Pop music for a spa probably isn't the best strategy.

• Enunciate your words clearly to ensure the caller can understand your greeting. Avoid strong accents.

• Keep it succinct. No one wants to listen to three minutes of talking before even hearing their options.

• Make sure callers feel welcome. Thank them for calling and let them know how you are going to help them.

• Your extensions should be easy to follow and cover the most

A piece of advice to web entrepreneurs just getting started: rather than becoming consumed with starting the next Google or Facebook, focus on creating a remarkable company with a niche target market that solves a problem that you yourself have had. Here are four and a half great videos from six entrepreneurs to help you focus, get inspired, and launch a successful startup.

1. Make Money - David Heinemeier Hannson, Co-founder of 37signals

David from 37Signals gives an uplifting, straightforward talk on creating a profitable company, charging money for your product, and to solve simple problems. David and I have similar views on growing a business: do it yourself without venture capital, focus on entrepreneurs (he calls them Fortune 5,000,000), and solve a problem you face yourself. What changes can you implement to either make or create an additional $1 million a year from your niche target?

Connect with David on Twitter: @dhh

2. Break Conventions - Eoghan McCabe & Des Traynor, Founders of Contrast.ie

Breaking conventions is easier said than done, and Eoghan and Des

For the past two months you have read posts about the first Grasshopper Labs product, Chargify. If you haven't, well here is a summary:

Chargify is a recurring billing application developed by Grasshopper Labs, a team of entrepreneurs, developers, and marketers who strive to create breakthrough web apps. Chargify is designed to make billing easy and with affordable freemium pricing, no long term contract and no transaction fees, it is perfect for growing web 2.0 and SaaS applications.

That being said, the Labs team has been working extremely hard over the past few months to ensure the success of Chargify, and today we'd like to announce the launch of the The Bullring, Chargify’s new blog. We’re hoping to share the knowledge we’ve built over the past six years and make it easy for young SaaS applications to implement a recurring billing system.

Find great information on recurring billing, billing best practices, recurring billing case studies, metrics, SaaS, Rails and more! The Bullring is meant to serve as a hub for entrepreneurs and developers running subscription based businesses. Check it out at http://chargify.com/blog.