We worked with Hospice of the Comforter, a local palliative care provider, to tailor the site’s appearance, language, and tools to the organization’s core demographic, women ages 40-65. Accessibility features were a key focus as we brought the site to compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The nonprofit organization’s work in the community was emphasized with features such as tribute pages, photos, event calendar, and The Comfort Line e-newsletter.

View the project

HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, is an advocacy group for persecuted and oppressed persons worldwide and has been around since the 1880s. The organization needed to develop a digital strategy to increase awareness of outreach initiatives, attract a younger generation, and increase revenue through online giving. After meeting with executives and an education on the many branches of HIAS, Purple, Rock, Scissors formed online subdomains — such as Global, MyStory, and Advocacy — for each significant facet of the non-profit’s work. An interactive map shows the different regions where HIAS is conducting campaigns aided heavily by user donations; we customized the donation system so users could sync online and offline giving and track donations, and created room for future growth of a Young Leaders subdomain.

View the project

Purple, Rock, Scissors put together three motion graphics spots for Resource Point, a local non-profit organization that links individuals in the community who are in need with the appropriate government agencies, faith-based organizations, and other non-profits in order to get the help they need. Narrated by Dr. Joel Hunter, we designed animation with a hand-drawn look and a modern feel. The motion graphics use clear symbols and multicultural characters so they’re easily understood regardless of language or background; fluid animation and contemporary color scheme lend to the Resource Point brand.

Watch the motion

Black foil stamp on 130 lb. Epic Black cover stock by Neenah Paper. Clean, crisp, and classy never goes out of style. Adding a unique touch to our business cards is just another way that Purple, Rock, Scissors identifies itself as a unique player in the industry. Above all, the cards relay the message, “Hello my name is Purple.” Check out the rest of the cards here.

Including myself, there’s a select number of people here that love espresso (unlinked: Ben, who doesn’t have a blog yet). Coffee is okay, we drink it every day but for me personally I prefer straight espresso and the occasional macchiato. This isn’t really a story about our epic afternoon espresso adventures, but more about our hardware.

We have a Krups’ fancy dual caffeine selection maker thing. It’s real cool: It has blinking lights, buttons, settings and cup warmer steam crap and excessive use of brushed aluminum glued on top of cheap plastic. But unfortunately, it’s also the largest piece we’ve ever set eyes on. I’d like to think we’re fairly tech-saavy people, but this thing has defeated us so many times I have grown to question my ability to negotiate the operations of simple machinery.

When Bobby first brought it in, we were so stoked! Aaron and I spent countless hours sitting there trying to make it do our bidding. We both have espresso makers at home, so it would make sense to assume we are pros and know what we’re doing: wrong. No manuals for us–just do things that would make sense with other systems. After about an hour and a half of stupidly wondering why it wasn’t working, it was deemed broken upon arrival, so we sent it back to Krups.

In their infinite apologies, they sent an awesomer, more brushed-aluminum-blinky-lights version than the first. The problem? Busted. Send it back a second time. It should be noted that when we send these back, we don’t see them for weeks, or months and when we ask Krups about it, the typical response is, "Oh, we don’t know what you’re talking about. Our products are marvels of modern-day human engineering, but here’s a new one anyway." So we get our third about a month and a half, maybe two months ago. First attempt with the third machine: FAIL! Same problems as before: Coffee machine incapable of generating coffee.

All this to say, we came back from lunch today to find the fourth iteration. As we all know the saying goes; fourth time is a charm–and it works very well so far. We just had a fantastic espresso time complimented with crackers and lame jokes. I can’t wait to catch up on all of the PRPL Afternoon Espresso sessions we’ve been wrongly denied by Krups in the coming months.

This inspiration post is centered around the work of Julien Rivoire, better known as Bastardgraphics. He is a 26 year old graphic designer based out of Lyon, France. He has completed work for companies such as Sixpack, Universal Music, Karmaloop, Threadless and many others.

Check out more work by Julien Rivoire at Bastardgraphics.

It’s been a solid month since my very opinionated, rushed and for the most part useless post on Eclipse vs NetBeans. Zach was kind enough to criticize me left and right about the blog post as well as a few other people doing the same. So here’s what I’ve been doing: I use NetBeans at home for my myriad of freelance projects and here at work I kept using Eclipse (as well as trying the new Zend Studio) and occasionally NetBeans for a project here or there.

Eclipse

Since Eclipse has been my long time favorite, I’ll go with it first. I would venture to say it’s the most popular IDE and is also renowned for it’s amazing memory management (sarcasm). It’s hard not to like it despite it’s sometimes very crippling shortcomings.

I think the most frustrating thing about the application is the memory management. I jump around on a lot of projects throughout the day, opening and closing this or that, so the max is 254MB: I always tap that out by the end of the day: inevitably having to restart it periodically. What gets me is that closing a project will sometimes cause Eclipse to use up MORE memory, which leads to a very necessary, "Wtf?" response, and of course the garbage collection button doesn’t work.

As far as my gripes go, I’d say that’s it. Sure, it took me about half my lifetime to configure it how I wanted, but now that I have that, I’m living large. It turns out that it’s very difficult to export the color scheme as well. I really want to let people use it without also getting my SVN information as well. If someone could shed some light, that’d be wonderful.

My favorite thing about it is how easily I can navigate through code using key combinations. While using the new Zend Studio, I also thoroughly enjoyed their integration with Zend_Tool; it was rad.

NetBeans

NetBeans and I have been at a love-hate thing lately. I really like it sometimes, but it seems so clunky to me… just the same as my last post. The code completion, at least on my work computer is painful.

Take for example the last half of this week I’ve been developing a surprise (it was a surprise for me) Magento extension. It feels like NetBeans scans the entire project while doing code completion and it simply takes forever. On the flipside, however, it really does handle code completion better than Eclipse. I can be in a .phtml view file and click on a method called by $this and it actually links me to the proper object. That is impressive and equally handy–especially in a monstrosity of an application like Magento.

While I was able to select the ability to use Eclipse keys for NetBeans, it wasn’t all there. I wasn’t able to move lines of code with shortcuts, move tabs the way I wanted and the delete line shortcut was, as far as I could tell, non-existent. High maintenance, I suppose.

At home, however, its different: it may be that my work computer only has 2GB of RAM, whereas my other iMac at home is completely upgraded; but I wouldn’t imagine an IDE to take up every last resource to scroll or do code completion. I took a gander around the internet and it seems my woes are very limited (to me only here at work).

The coolest feature I’ve found in NetBeans is it’s integration with SVN. I love that I can bang out code and see the diff view next to the line numbers as I go. While it’s not enormously important, it is one of those fancy nice-to-have’s.

Verdict

I’m going to keep using Eclipse here at work, and NetBeans at home. If Eclipse and NetBeans were to spawn a child, I’d probably use that. If NetBeans ran better on my work computer, I’d probably use it over Eclipse.

Advice for entrepreneurs seeking to partner with talented, like-minded people in an effort to develop and manage a business: follow the exit lights. Whether you’re about to start a business, or have been operating one for years, it’s imperative you adopt a buyout agreement.

Reasons you may have neglected to do so, thus far:

• “My partner(s) and I always act in each other’s best interest.”
• “We plan for success, not demise.”
• “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
• “It’s an awkward conversation.”
• “We are a family business.”
• “We’ve discussed it, and don’t need to put it in writing.”

And the list goes on and on. In so many ways, it is awkward to discuss the dissolution of your firm, or the departure of an owner – whether by convenience, disablement or death. It’s like asking your fiance for a prenuptial agreement; requesting a “Do Not Resuscitate” order; or planning your own funeral. It can be downright awkward.

So, if you think you’ve got it all figured out, what happens when, let’s say:

• You’ve agreed on a buyout price for your ownership interest, but because of cash flow issues, there is simply no money available at the time of your departure?
• It’s time for you to move on, but your partner refuses to buy out your shares; you can’t find an outside buyer willing to purchase a minority interest; and you’re left with a worthless piece of paper?
• An owner sells her interest to an outside buyer, or gives her interest to her son, and the new owner is not qualified to manage the business?
• An owner divorces, and the courts grant her ex-husband – whom neither of you can tolerate – 50% of her ownership interest?
• An owner loses a professional license, which impedes her ability to generate revenue for the business?
• A partner becomes mentally incapacitated or otherwise disabled, and endangers the reputation of your business?
• You die, and your significant other is left with an ownership interest in a firm he does not wish to manage?

Once again, the list goes on and on. The most fundamental factor that will harm you, your partners, and your business, is emotion. If you think it’s stressful managing your business now, wait until your partner decides it’s time to move on, and you can’t help but feeling abandoned. Or wait until your partner and life-long friend dies, and her family demands fair market value for her shares, which you know will shut down your business.

If you’re rolling your eyes at my “what if?” list, be certain of one thing: there will be a “what if?” scenario. And at the time of that scenario, there will be emotions involved that may cloud your judgement, harm your interests, and result in costly consequences both psychologically and fiscally. It’s imperative you plan your buyout agreement while emotions are even-keeled, and you can objectively agree on an exit strategy that is mutually beneficial to the departing owner, the remaining owners, and the company in general.

So, what are some common provisions in a buyout agreement? Well first, it’s important to note that provisions may be tailored to offer greater benefit to either the majority or the minority owner. Therefore, in order to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement, it’s important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each provision both from the perspective of a majority owner and minority owner. In fact, provisions in the agreement may include exceptions that could apply to majority owners, but not to minority owners. Bottom line, if you’re a minority shareholder, I advise you are very cognizant of any contractual language that may place the majority owners at a distinct advantage.

Below, I’ve listed a few basic examples of buyout agreement provisions:

Right of First Refusal

Wisely, this provision offers the company and continuing owners the first option to purchase a departing owner’s interest. If declined, the departing owner can sell her interest to an outside party, potentially at fair market value. Since, the company has the right to purchase the interest, the continuing owners can prevent the entrance of a new owner who may be a complete stranger, or may not even be qualified to manage the business. For the departing owner, the ability to “shop” the interest to an outside buyer may result in a higher buyout price for the interest. While this is a nice provision, a departing owner may have difficulty selling her interest to an outside buyer – the likelihood that an outside buyer will pay fair market value for a minority interest in a small business is next-to-nil. In result, the departing owner will be forced to sell her share back to the company or continuing owners at an unfairly discounted value.

Right to Force a Sale

As an extension/alternative to the Right of First Refusal, the Right to Force a Sale offers distinct benefits to the parties. First, let’s identify a small business owner’s primary source of income: salary, benefits, and other expense-related perks. If you are a departing owner with no potential buyers, what’s the value of your interest? Remember, you likely no longer collect a salary, receive benefits, or earn performance-related incentives. What about your small cut of the profits? Yes, but let’s be realistic; the company will find ways to cut you out of the mix. After all, you’re not even participating in the business anymore, so, why should they feel obligated to pay you anything?

Bottom line, when you leave your business, you’ll want to get paid. And that’s why you, as a potential departing owner, should include the Right to Force a Sale. With this provision in place, a departing owner must simply provide an Intent to Force a Sale Notice, which will trigger the company or continuing owners to purchase the interest at the value determined in the buyout agreement. And remember, this also benefits the company and continuing owners because it ensures that the ownership interest is not transferred to a new person who may not have the credentials, management skills, or interpersonal skills necessary to functionally operate the business. Moreover, at the inception of the buyout agreement, the owners may likely agree on a more favorable buyout price and payment terms for the company or continuing owners, because the departing owner is guaranteed the sale.

Next, you must determine who will be responsible for buying a departing owner’s interest. You may either (A) execute an entity purchase buyback, which obligates the company to purchase the departing owner’s interest, and then distributes the newly acquired interest proportionately to the continuing owners, or (B) execute a cross-purchase buyback, which may offer any of the continuing owners the option to purchase the departing owner’s interest.

What about the value of your business? Clearly, you aren’t publicly traded. So, how do you even know what your business is worth? The most simple yet severely flawed method is the Fixed Price Method. This method does not take into account profitability; goodwill, such as reputation and customer retention; or any other factor. Generally speaking, it’s unfair to any party involved. On the other end of the spectrum, you can pay to have your business professionally appraised, but a proper appraisal may cost in excess of $10,000. In consideration of both extremes, the Capitalization of Earnings Method offers a fair and widely adopted valuation formula, specifically the EBITDA formula – Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization. Since it’s a valuation formula, the buyout price will be the product of the successes and failures of the company, offering the departing owner a more realistic, representative buyout price at the time of her departure.

For owners of small businesses, cash flow is typically the biggest concern. So, when a departing owner is ready to leave, becomes disabled, or dies, how do you plan on funding the buyout? From insurance policies to tax implications, you’ll have to research numerous considerations specific to your type of organization, whether it’s a partnership, LLC, or corporation.

Once you determine how to fund it, you’ll have to agree on payment terms. Since, you have no way of knowing when an owner may leave the business, or even more, what your cash flow will be at the time of the departure, you should avoid offering a lump sum payment. Instead, offer installment payments over a period of one to three years. And while you will pay interest on these installments, the ability to make more palatable payments over a period of years may be the key to keeping your business afloat.

In conclusion, now is the time to start a conversation with your current or future partners. And while, in any case, you should consult an attorney before executing any agreements, I strongly recommend you read "Business Buyout Agreements," written by Attorneys Bethany Laurence and Anthony Mancuso. For those of you unfamiliar, NOLO is a publisher that offers great resources for a wide variety of legal matters. In fact, this book actually includes a print and digital copy of a sample buyout agreement, helping you tailor it to your needs, step-by-step. Proper research will allow you to do the majority of the leg work on your own, and more importantly, in collaboration with your partners. Just remember, it’s a whole lot easier to create this agreement now, so get started!