After a couple of delays the California Street Music site is up and running. You can get the latest album from KNOCKOUT at the online store. Buy the CD or download some tunes. Which ever you may prefer. Some good music! So, check it out!

The following was written by Mike Mitra, President & CEO of SoReal Unlimited, Inc.

What once was “surreal” is now “SoReal…”

For Real?
To think that greeting cards would eventually become my career or my way of life… Yeah right. Even through my college years I would of bet a million dollars that I would never even come close to working in the greeting card industry. So here I am today… The Founder & President/CEO of SoReal Unlimited, Inc. - a greeting card company. Funny how life works. I think it shocked my parents, friends and family when I told them that I wanted to start a greeting card publishing company. But luckily for me, those same people became my biggest supporters.

The Dreamer Met The Believer…
I never really was the greeting card “giver” type. If I ever did give a card to someone, it was a blank card that I purchased with a personal message written on the inside. It wasn’t until the summer of 2002 at a restaurant in Denver, CO and on a bar napkin that I started to map out what is now known as SoReal Unlimited, Inc. I was talking to my wife (who was then my girlfriend of 3 months) about creating a vehicle that can express the joys and sorrows of life’s realities and still show the genuine side of one’s feelings - basically something that would “keep it real.” At the time, I could only relate to my own personal experiences in life - that although our lives or even our families are never perfect, we can still sift through the all the coal and find the diamonds. After all, coal is what diamonds are made of. I didn’t know it at the time, but that beautiful young lady that kept me company as I scribbled random thoughts on a bar napkin would turn out to be the biggest believer in my dream.

Surreal Becomes SoReal
In general, families, friends and loved ones need a way to communicate with each other from the heart. I felt it wasn’t happening enough in the world. Sometimes as people, we get too caught up in the day to day, the superficial and forget to share the little pieces of our hearts which can actually be the greatest gifts of all. Greeting cards became that vehicle. Far too often, a greeting card is just something we attach to a present because it “just goes together.” I wanted to create something tangible, where people can actually take pieces of their hearts, minds and souls and actually give it to someone else. So in the fall of 2007, SoReal Unlimited was born.

The story continues at www.SoRealUnlimited.com

That was a year ago and Henchmen Productions has now gotten bigger and better. We’ve added logo and print design to our list of services. In addition, we now do web hosting in order to be a one-stop place for our customers and their needs.

ALSO…

We now offer 4 startup packages to help get you rolling with your new business!

I’m excited with the new changes going on. I’m also looking forward to working with new customers with our new services.

I’ve never ridden a skateboard before surprisingly. At 31 I’m not certain how wise it is for me to try to learn now. But I guess you’re never to old to act like a kid again. Well, I finally got around to buying wheels and trucks for the skateboard deck. Once I get it all geared up I may begin an on going post on how not to ride a skateboard.

Get a skateboard now!

ADM Skateboards Website: www.ADMSkateboards.com

Zoho is a company that specializes in developing software-as-a-service products that is geared towards small and medium size business. They have a number of online products that compare to Word, Excel, and other MS Office products but the one product that really caught my attention was ZOHO CRM.

ZOHO CRM is a Customer Relationship Management application. I use it to organize my customer information, my ongoing projects, cases, and tasks. I set the priority for each and make sure everything gets completed. There’s a sales module for the sales side of the business. That piece I am still learning. But overall, ZOHO CRM has the features I was looking for when it came to a solution for running the business side of Henchmen Productions.

A plus+ to ZOHO CRM is that it is a software-as-a-service. I know I mentioned that once but what does that mean? Well, you know when you buy Microsoft Office and you install a client to your machine? With software-as-a-service there is no installation. The application is used online and the back-end is managed by ZOHO. That means I have do not have to worry about administrating a server, making sure software is up-to-date, or installing anything on my machine. I let ZOHO worry about those things and I just make sure I pay my ISP bill. If I’m not online then I can’t access ZOHO CRM. But in this day and age most places have wifi available for free making it easy to access my data when and where ever.

The best part about ZOHO CRM is that it’s affordable. It’s free for the first 3 users and $12 a month for each additional user. Compare that to the prices of Salesforce.com and you’ll notice you’re saving yourself a few hundred if not thousands of dollars. Money that could be used towards your small business (or a relaxing vacation). And once you do purchase one or more users you move from ZOHO CRM Personal Edition to ZOHO CRM Professional Edition. Professional Edition includes mass email, SSL support, and more features to help out your business.

Well, that’s my 2 cents on ZOHO CRM. I have found it to be extremely useful in staying organized. It’s a very affordable and useful solution for small and medium size businesses and definitely worth checking out. So far no disappointment.

Main Site: www.ZOHO.com

We’re happy to have a new indie label out of Southern California roll with Henchmen Productions for their site design. California Street Music is a music label specializing in the ska, punk, reggae sound. The first band signed to the label is Knock-Out and has a similar vibe to that of Sublime and Pepper. The California Street Music site will be up mid-May and will feature an online store. More news to follow as the LIVE date comes closer!

For 2008 we’re taking Henchmen Productions a step further. We’re now offering additional services like logo and print designs We have also improved our internal processes to better serve our customers. Our website has also undergone a redesign to provide more information about ourselves as well online forms for new and existing customers.

We are very much looking forward to expanding what we do and hope you join us for the ride!