Ok, so for some reason Twitter suspended our App in their developer portal and it locked everyone out of our site since we use them for our authentication.

For now, we are back up and running and hopefully we won't get suspended again. We are going to re-think using Twitter for authentication going forward now that Elon is creating a bit of a mess over there.

Cheers!

If you own a business, here are some of the most basic things you should have...

• LLC or SCorp
• EIN
• Business Bank Accounts (Checking, Credit Card, Savings)
• Company Story
• Tag Line
• Company Values
• Logo
• Business Cards
• Branded Estimate Template
• Minimum 1 Page Website with Branded Domain Name
• Branded Email Address
• Google Listing
• Facebook, Instagram Pages
• Bookkeeper / Accountant

This is just the bare minimum for most businesses, there are other things like processes, job descriptions, legal documents, insurance, workman's comp, etc. etc.

Are there any other bare minimum things I'm missing?

Happy Friday! Today we are excited to announce the launch of a fun little feature called "Leaders or Leaderboards" for Open Makers.

As a fun way to boost a bit of competition on the site and highlight Makers who put in the effort to share their progress in public.

We currently show the top 25 Makers in our 7 different leaderboard categories...

• Most Projects
• Most Milestones
• Most Tasks Completed
• Most Articles
• Most Followers
• Most Profile Views
• Most Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

To view the leaderboards, you can visit this link:

https://openmakers.io/leaders or you can get to it from the third tab on the homepage.

Let us know what you think and I look forward to being knocked out of first place.

Since Bill and Terry Moore opened their planing and molding operation in 1947, many expansions have taken place. After three and a half decades in operation, Bill, Sr. and Terry sold the family business to their son, Bill, Jr., in 1981. Nineteen years later, in 2000, Moore Lumber & Hardware proudly joined Ace Hardware. Bill welcomed his son and business partner, Erin, to the company with the addition of the Pine Junction, Colorado store in 2013.

The company now operates six Ace Hardware stores with locations in Aspen Park, Bennett, Bailey, Pine Junction, Castle Rock, and Evergreen (operating as Evergreen Ace Hardware & Paint). Today, the Pine Junction and Bennett stores hold the highest ranking in the Ace family as Pinnacle stores. With lumber yards located throughout the Front Range, we are able to provide quality lumber and building materials to professionals and homeowners throughout Colorado.

Learn More: https://www.homepropartners.com/pro/moorelbr

After several weeks of hard work, we finally have the ability for members to leave comments on Milestones and Articles!

For such a basic feature, it's a surprisingly complex feature to build and we are still working out a few kinks.

Comments will help make the site a bit more dynamic and will allow for hopefully helpful feedback and support to makers about their updates.

Feedback helps Makers improve their products and helps provide a support system in a world where it can feel very isolating to build a product on your own.

Blue Sky Insurance Consultants has proudly served the insurance needs of Colorado since 2010. Why choose and Independent Agent? Because independent insurance agencies represent a number of different insurance companies and can compare coverage and prices to find the best possible value for your individual circumstances. I pride myself on getting to know my clients and their families and building lasting relationship. I work for you, not the carrier and I am committed to your satisfaction and I am your advocate in times of need. Blue Sky has three locations across the state and is also licensed in New Mexico and Arizona.

Learn More: https://www.homepropartners.com/pro/sarahmontano

When it comes to seeing to it that her clients have a world-class experience, Yvonne brings a never-give-up attitude along with a commitment to maintaining constant communication throughout the entire process. With passion and persistence, she works tirelessly to make sure her clients realize their real estate dreams and goals, and with over 40 transactions in 2019, you can be sure that Yvonne also offers experience and expertise in the industry. However, it’s not about volume. Her biggest motivation is to make a difference in everything she does.

Learn More: https://www.homepropartners.com/pro/coloradohomerealty

It has been a couple months since we last pushed out some big changes, I'm excited to share today our first set of updates to the site…

- Dark Mode
- Maker Tasks
- Email Notifications
- Maker Stats
- "I Need -> Maker Requests"
- Maker Requests Sidebar

Dark Mode Are you really a maker if your site doesn't have dark mode? Yes, yes you are. But we are still excited to share that we have finally pushed out dark mode for Maker profiles. When you are logged in, go to your manage profile page and in the sidebar there is a toggle to turn dark mode on and off, then just save your profile.

There are certainly more refinements coming for it, but we have a good start in place. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Maker Tasks This is a feature we have had planned for a long time, but have held back in respect for some other services that have a similar feature. However, we keep getting requests for a small, more "daily" update option beyond just large milestones so we are officially adding in Maker Tasks.

Maker Tasks allow you to post short progress updates on any of your products, you can use these to refresh your memory when you write your bigger milestone posts and want to give a consolidated larger update about your progress.

We do not have "streaks" for our tasks, we understand it may help with consistency in posting, but it also causes a lot of stress for people. They simply become constant "back of your mind" stressors that build up over time, plus, if you were to lose your streak, it becomes super depressing. So we simply aren't doing streaks, post when and as much as you want to.

Email Notifications Open Makers can sometimes feel a bit like a black hole, to solve this, we first introduced on-site notifications and now we are supplementing that with email notifications as well. You no longer have to come to the site to see if you have any interactions on your content.

To adjust your email notification settings, simply manage your profile, and select between "Immediate, Daily or Never" to adjust the flow of emails. By default it is set to Daily.

Maker Stats This is less of a feature and more of a "nice-to-know" element. If you go to your specific profile page, you will now see a new row directly under your main header information. We now display 6 different stats: Products, Milestones, Tasks, Articles, Followers and Profile Views.

This helps you see a high-level overview of how much you are actually pushing content through the site and how many people are finding you interesting enough to visit your profile. As we have always said, the more content you create, the more visibility you and your products receive in return. If you are truly eager to grow your business, sharing content is the easiest, most long-term solution.

Maker Requests This is actually a feature we already had, which was originally called "I Need", it was only displayed on your personal profile so it wasn't very visible despite being a very valuable tool to help get feedback and push out requests for things you need help with.

We updated the name of the feature and we also added a new sidebar panel to display the most recent Maker Requests to hopefully drive more collaboration and discovery.

Wrapping Up This is just the first set of new features and updates, we are working on the second set right now and hope to push those out as soon as possible. These next updates will help drive conversation and support for all Makers and their content. We'll share more about these updates soon.

Thanks for your ongoing support! :: Open Makers

Today we launched a small but important feature for Open Makers.

As a Colorado resident of over 19 years, I'm proud to serve Castle Rock and the surrounding areas as your local Farmers Insurance® agent. In the years I've spent living here, I have grown to understand the unique complexities that come with insuring your home, business, or recreational vehicles in the community that we live in. I aim to use my expertise to help make you smarter about your insurance options - whether that be commercial, high-value home, specialty, life, and more!

Learn More: https://www.homepropartners.com/pro/braderagency