Small Drupal Shops

There was a great BOF at Drupalcon New Orleans for small shops to get together and discuss common problems. It was mentioned that this group existed so here's a post to see if we can get this group kicking again. Anyone out there?

I'd like to store data securely in the database of my site which is a D6 based OpenAtrium install. To this end, I prettymuch just grabbed the text module from CCK (since I'm not releasing this as my own module) and then enabled the Encrypt module and added "encrypt()" and "decrypt()" around what I thought were the appropriate variables.

I have no issue with decrypting the data, but encrypting it seems to be a bit of a battle.

There's an interesting thread on linkedin discussing market rates for Drupal development work (freelance, contract, etc.) here: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionI...

I'm not sure what conclusion can be drawn, other than the obvious one - rates vary widely depending on location, skills required, etc, etc. Still, the discussion makes worthwhile reading IMHO.

Can anyone recommend time tracking software?

I've got a Mac and have an iPhone, and am probably looking at something web-based. I need to be able to track hours from multiple locations and devices.

I've been using iBiz for a while, but I'm looking to move to something which has an iphone app for tracking work on the go. Ideally, I'd like to be able to have multiple clients/projects and team members, and also use the software to generate invoices (although invoicing isn't a deal breaker).

Ok, I'm prepared to shot down down this, you might feel that there are too many Drupal related groups already. ..

Drupal for Business on linkedin.com.

Hi All,
Like most of us, I am a member of a micro firm. For the most part, we carry long term contracts of development and maintenance for our clients.
One thing we struggle with is information retention and sharing.
This info could be anything from Customer contacts, Project specifics and deliverables, incident tracking, or the Hosting credentials.

Clearly, we need a groupware system. Ive looked around a many of them, but have not been satisfied yet.
Obviously, most of my time is spent billable, this cobbler's children have bad shoes...

Love the idea of this group, but really don't like the name.

Micro means tiny, insignificant, unimportant. (Maybe it's because of this article I read this week in Slate about micro-penises http://www.slate.com/id/2271897)

The name also implies that the big shops (should we say the obese shops?) are the norm and the smaller shops are the exception, where it's really the other way around.

I think smaller shops need a better way to describe themselves than "micro." Any ideas?

As I sit here working on a top-to-bottom redesign of the Suzhead web site, I find myself thinking about how we small shops try to balance promoting our services and products with doing "real" (aka billable) work.

My company web site is outdated and badly in need of the in-progress redesign. It was put up about four years ago when I began consulting, and has received only a few minor updates since. Why? It's just plain expedient to put off playing with my own site when there is billable work to be had, and in the past four years there has pretty much always been some billable work available.