Most restaurants have a paper-based manager logbook in the back office. It's used to help managers communicate, assign tasks, schedule meetings, keep checklists, let the next manager know what time the beer delivery guy is this afternoon, etc. It’s a simple organizational tool that all managers use.
And for years the only option was pencil and paper and a book that had to stay at the restaurant. Coffee could be spilled on it. It could be lost. A recently fired manager could take it on his way out the door. Any number of things could happen to cause disruptions, confusion, and headaches.
Alas, no longer. Available from anywhere with Internet access (computer or mobile device), never lost or damaged, customizable - the list of benefits over paper-based books goes on and on. And of course Schedulefly's customers leverage "FlyNotes," our terribly simple, intuitive, customizable, web-based manager communication tool....
The Hooters in Doral Florida is ranked the #1 Hooters in the world. There are 90 very busy girls there and a management team that has to stay on the ball to keep work schedules fine-tuned and communication flowing. The staff enjoy the simplicity and ease of use of our web based software - they've even said we make it fun. They enjoy the convenience of checking their schedules and communicating with the other girls from anywhere. The girls at this particular Hooters are also some of our most active mobile users as well - trading shifts, posting wall messages and checking their schedules on the go - from their mobile devices. The GM there, Steve, has this to say about how our simple software is helping his business.
"Schedulefly is easy for me and fun for our girls. It saves me several hours of scheduling time per week. In addition, the girls love being able to receive their schedules via text message or their Facebook pages, as well as being able to trade shifts and request time off online or on the fly on their iPhones and Blackberries. And we have completely eliminated scheduling mis-reads. I highly recommend Schedulefly."
While making life for Steve and his management team easier, we've also managed to make it fun for all the girls. Check out what they had to say about Schedulefly...
We recently updated Schedulefly's "About Us" page so potential customers and partners could learn more about us, our philosophy and who we are here to serve. The page was getting wordy so I thought I'd cut some out and share it here in this post.
Our Philosophy Lots of web businesses don't tell you who their people are. Or they attempt to seem bigger than they are. We, on the other hand, like transparency and we are proud to be small. We don't just say we like to keep it simple, we actually live and breath it. The business model that we have created allows us to keep our team lean and our overhead low. The less people and the less processes and the less stuff to decide on and manage - the better.
Who We Are We're currently three guys in three different cities in N.C. (Wilmington, Raleigh, Charlotte). We mostly work out of our houses and coffee shops. Our web and database servers live in an impressive data center in Raleigh NC. We have some occasional contract help, but we don’t believe we'll ever have - or need - more than a handful of people around here. That's because we believe in the value - and beauty - of simplicity. We have a simple web-based service with a familiar interface - not too many screens and buttons and settings. We have only added the stuff that really matters - thoughtful features you'll actually use. In fact, you'll probably even have some fun! And because we keep things intuitive, simple, and easy we don't need many people to help take care of our customers. We don't have investors, so nobody is breathing down our necks to grow faster. Instead we grow one restaurant at a time, and we take great care of them, and they almost all renew every month.
Who Uses Our Product We created Schedulefly for restaurants, and we keep a laser focus on helping restaurants. We mostly serve indies, groups, small chains, and franchisees. More importantly, we serve people who like to keep things simple - and fun! They don't want a lot of bells and whistles and layers and rules and regulations and buttons and settings. Our customers love Schedulefly mainly because its simple. Simple to deploy. Simple to use. Simple to get a new employee started. And fun for all involved. Our customers use words like "Love" and "Fun" - see for yourself.
We tried to make our multi-unit dashboard both simple and powerful. Easily check scheduled labor costs for any location. Blast emails and texts to all employees. And post important documents. All with - you guessed it - one...single...click. Check it out....
The Schedulefly Network is available to every Schedulefly user. It’s a fun, simple place to share ideas, tips and best practices, ask questions about Schedulefly or about anything ("What's your favorite food?" was a recent post), and socialize. A quick screencast showing how folks are having fun - and getting significant value - on the Network.
Some will, but since the requirements for building these two kinds of web applications are so different, they tend to move in different directions after the very first line of code is written. Consumer web apps are usually focused on people, ease of use and simplicity while Business web apps (especially Enterprise apps) are focused more on functionality, security, rules and tightly coupled integrations. It certainly seems like there is a trend to merge these two with the explosion of multi-tenant SaaS applications on the web (software as a service), but it's challenging to pull off and tough to sell. One of the challenges is changing the perception that simple hosted software is not going to help a business that is complicated. Complexity seems to need complexity.
In 2006 I attended Salesforce.com's Dreamforce event. In the keynote speech, Marc Benioff talked about his theory called the "Business Web" and the idea that business software like Salesforce.com should be as easy to use as consumer websites like eBay and Amazon. This theory is inspiring. Why are web apps used by consumers so easy to use while most business apps are so complicated? You can visit consumer web sites and get your personal business done quickly and easily - yet many business applications require roll out, on site technicians and training. Why can't business software be easy and intuitive like consumer software?
While writing this - I think back to a meeting my business partner Wil and I had with a prospect in early 2009. We flew across the country to demo Schedulefly to a prospect with a few hundred locations. We were excited for sure! We were anxious to show them how our product would make their lives easier and really simplify scheduling and communication with their thousands of staff. After seeing a demo of Schedulefly, the executives in the meeting looked at us and said: "It looks like a great product, but it seems like something is missing. It seems too easy." We were a tad caught off guard, yet smiled and asked what they thought was missing. Maybe our demo skipped over it or maybe we moved too fast. They could not answer the question. Later that evening over a beer, Wil and I high-fived at the thought of it seeming too easy. We didn't make the sale - but we were onto something.
A year later, I can think of a few reasons why that may have happened:
1. There was no discussion between us and their IT team about software installations, or a big roll out that would require time and training. There were no "documents" to pass out explaining complicated features related to security or governance or integration. Rolling it out to hundreds of locations would surely require many people, many hours, on site visits and lots of training right?
2. There were no busy looking screens with loads of data entry fields, check boxes, drop down boxes, complex rules etc. This is likely what they are used to using. Surely, to be useful to a complicated business, the software must look complicated and need lots of explanation right? How could it be so simple and help their business?
3. They were not already using inexpensive web based software to help run their business. The systems they had implemented to date were likely expensive, difficult to install, learn, use and maintain. Schedulefly was none of these things so it was not familiar.
I'm actually glad that meeting went the way it did. We were not right for this particular business and it actually had nothing to do with our size or their size. Even though our software would have added value and made their lives easier, they didn't feel it would because they perceived it to be too easy. They felt they needed more software. It was clear after that meeting and even more clear today that our software is not ideal for all restaurants and that's OK. We could make it more complicated and more automated and bigger, but we passionately believe that keeping it simple and laser focused makes it more reliable and will create a bunch of happy, loyal customers in the end. We like to think of our software as software for "The Business Web".
Are you using business software on the web yet? Let us know what you think and how it helps your business.
And for years the only option was pencil and paper and a book that had to stay at the restaurant. Coffee could be spilled on it. It could be lost. A recently fired manager could take it on his way out the door. Any number of things could happen to cause disruptions, confusion, and headaches. 
Some will, but since the requirements for building these two kinds of web applications are so different, they tend to move in different directions after the very first line of code is written. Consumer web apps are usually focused on people, ease of use and simplicity while Business web apps (especially Enterprise apps) are focused more on functionality, security, rules and tightly coupled integrations. It certainly seems like there is a trend to merge these two with the explosion of multi-tenant SaaS applications on the web (software as a service), but it's challenging to pull off and tough to sell. One of the challenges is changing the perception that simple hosted software is not going to help a business that is complicated. Complexity seems to need complexity.
