In a recent post of mine - Just paying the bills! - I had a comment from Emily, she writes:

……. So many books you read about business (e.g. Nick Rampley-Sturgeon’s “Small Business, Big Profit”), seem to view small one-man or one-woman businesses as no more than a glorified job.

As I’m just in the process of discovering, having just set up my own business, it’s not.

For one thing, you have to go out and sell your business, you haven’t got a nice manager there to give you work, and if there’s no work in, or the computer goes pop, you can’t just sit and have a gossip, you need to go out and find more work or you don’t get paid.

Small and micro-businesses are still businesses. I don’t plan to grow beyond me and the computer - but I’m not in a job. I have a business. ……

I have known Emily now for a some time. She is moving away from a midsize practice of accountants to work by herself and help small practice and small business with setting up their accounting and business.

What gets me going is that she is only been doing this for a short period of time and already has learned that as a one man business nobody really cares about your business or is interested in what you do - why is that?

I believe her great business attitude ” I don’t plan to grow beyond me and the computer…” is the reason. This means there is only very “little” money to be earned from a business like that. Secondly it has been very difficult in the past to service such a large number of small businesses with a limited budget.

This however has drastically changed in the last decade with broadband internet, on-demand software, on-demand services and 24/7 live online support. So why is this attitude not changing.

One could argue for example Microsoft is doing well in this arena, with MS-Office and all that, but that would be wrong, since MS-Office is and can be used by anyone in business or not, so nothing special for small business there. Let’s not even talk about SAP, Oracle, these guys have nothing to offer to small business, IMO.

So why is it - well it is because they simply do not understand small business, they can not understand an environment without daily meetings, or where you have to worry about how to sent a parcel and how long that is going to take you. While you are out doing your work, who is going to chase you open invoices, do your bookkeeping or answer your phone? These are the sort of issues small business face today!

This is easily demonstrated by the following example, here is a software vendor who claims to offer small business accounting software and you can buy a support contract too. It is also a well known fact that most admin work in small business gets done after hours. Guess what - all the support staff of the software vendor is not available after hours.

What small business needs is a Small Business Infrastructure to grow in and that helps to keep “all the balls” in the air, 24 hours a day. I have not seen any serious software vendor on-demand or not, who really understood this and is offering any relevant services in this sector. That in my opinion is also one the reasons for the horrendous mortality rate among small business in the first 12 month - over 50 %.

I also notice these problems when I talk to people about what WinWeb does. If I talk to small business and some accountants, business advisors, they get it in a flash. Not so with almost everybody else, they find our products and services very confusing and it takes a long time to make them understand what it is we do and when they finally get it they are very surprised about the whole concept.

I always use the parcel example and it goes something like this: You work in a large company and you want to sent a parcel - what do you do? - you give it to your secretary. If you work by yourself you go down the post office - ever been there? - and stand in line to send your parcel, because you don’t have a contract for sending a parcel once a month. Result, one or two hours out of your business day (up to 25%) is gone. In my experience even politicians and civil servants can relate to that example.

WinWeb will get someone to come and pick your parcel up - we call that a Live! service - and that is what we do and as such provide the same office (small business) infrastructure to one-man or one-woman businesses.

This of cause does not fit into the “core-business” mentality of most software vendors and that is why small business gets such a raw deal in this environment.

Tags: Accountants, AskM.co.uk, Bookkeeping, Business Development, Business Idea, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, Business Tool, Cannon-Moorcroft, Client Relations, CPAs, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, FREE Business Tool, Home Business, Homesourcing, IT, Micro Business, Microsoft, SaaS, SAP, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, Software as a Service, SOHO, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VirtualOffice, VSB, WebOffice, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice

We had a very good day today - I am happy to announce that we have now over 200′000 registered users on our systems.

The growth in our users numbers has been contributed to steady organic online growth and a growing number of reseller and OEM deals, where our product is bundled.

Thanks to everyone for their trust and support.

Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, Client Relations, Entrepreneur, Home Business, Homesourcing, IT, Live! Services, Micro Business, On-demand, OnlineOffice, Outsourcing, SaaS, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, Software as a Service, SOHO, Teleworking, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VSB, WebOffice, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice

Om Malik has written an interesting post about BT’s way forward and a lot of comments have been posted about the inability of telcos to deliver other products and services. Om writes:

“BT was one telco that completely understood that it was facing uncertain times, and had no choice but to reinvent itself to survive.”

Any of the big incumbent telcos have known this since 1990 give or take a few years.

The basic truth is - being a telco and staying with voice or data services alone is no longer a viable business model.

Fact is, they have known for many years they need to change I just don’t think the know how to. Had they offered this broadband, VoIP, IP-VPNs, etc during these years - their balance sheets would have imploded, because of the massive capital investment in hardware voice-switches (SS-7, etc.). Very little of the progress in those years was innovated by them, since up until then they had no need to, they did not know how to - little has changed.

So while I also have my doubts that these telcos will be able to provide any additional services, this is their only road to survival. So like it or not, they are going down this road because it complements what they do already.

Problem for them is, they got cannibalized once, who says it will not happen again. On the other hand maybe they learn this way what customer service, reliable infrastructure and running a business really means.

But here is the thing, what the ISPs - with IP networks - did to Telcos, bloggers are doing to the traditional media, that is why they are sharpening their knifes pencils and the SaaS community is doing to the big software boys - we are cannibalizing a market and demand created by the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, in my case Sage and others, in many cases because they provide a poor service and product for inflated prices. Artificially accelerated product cycles, often driven by faulty or unfinished software products, for which the customer had to pay, have done a lot of damage.

They all talk about on-demand this, on-demand that, but in reality they are slow, by the time they made a decision, the world has changed. But these guys have a lot of money to spend to hide these facts, with fancy events and marketing, they are trying hard to win back the initiative, but IMO the writing is on the wall. SaaS vendors need to make sure they do not play by their rules as you can not win on their terms.

We are small in comparison, but we are fast, inventive and clearly set the pace in this industry now. Customer churn may not be an issue for them yet - people have invested interests, money and don’t want change - but once the churn starts and I think it has, these guys are in big trouble - shareholders can be unforgiving masters.

If we keep our companies lean and concentrate on service, technology, innovation, these guys have nowhere to hide, it is just a matter of time.

So relax, I think it is going to be an interesting ride, …. again.

Tags: ACCA, Accountants, Blogging, British Telecom, BT, Client Relations, CPAs, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Home Business, Homesourcing, ICAEW, IRIS Accounting Software, Micro Business, Microsoft, Office/IT, On-demand, OnlineOffice, Oracle, Sage, SaaS, SAP, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, Software as a Service, SOHO, Virtual Assitants, VirtualOffice, Web Technology, WebOffice, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb OnlineOffice

Zoli has a story about rudeness to customers, I have one of those too. Read the full story on my travel blog World Signia here, here just a short excerpt:

…….. I had to ask Elizabeth to find someone to give us “a” hand with our luggage, she performed this duty to the letter, as the Duty manager had the “other” hand in a bandage, but he tried very hard, which is more than can be said for his colleagues. However, it took quite some time to get the luggage to our rooms, so we missed the room service deadline.

Which is where our next problem starts, I asked for something to eat for us, so we had a loaf of bread, butter and some fruit delivered to our room, the bread was still in it’s plastic wrapping, we collapsed laughing when we saw that. This is a five star hotel owned by Voyages Hotels and Resorts. Who gave this place five stars or did they just buy a sticker set.

The next thing was, I made a reservation for the a la carte restaurant for the following evening for 19:15 hours, later I checked and what a surprise I had no reservation. It was suggested that I had not made a reservation. I looked at the list and you could see 19:15 had Tip-Ex applied, so I asked to hold the sheet to the light - I did not give them a chance to object to my request - and then you could see clearly my name under the Tip-Ex. What a place. No apology or anything, it was incredible.

They did not make up our room for three days, I was asked whether I had requested that my room should be made up. I have to admit this question left me speechless, which is quite a feat. Even after I told them I would write about this - exaggerating the importance of my travel blog just slightly - I only got: “Can I help you with anything else?” I knew suggesting to her to come over to make our beds would not work - you just know sometimes, even without asking. …..

It is amazing how businesses behave towards clients and don’t even care when you point it out to them. Hat tip to Zoli for relentlessly publishing this stuff, it happens so often these days, that you are so used to this ignorant behavior.

Tags: Client Relations, Customer Service, sme-blog, Voyages Hotels & Resorts, world-signia

It is not only my SIIA On-Demand Conference engagement in Amsterdam or the fact that Phil’s post has been nagging me ever since I read it, but the fact we are doing some of - or sort of - what Phil has written about already for some time - and yet the impact has been small IMO, I am talking about giving our software away for FREE. But most of our almost 200k users have been acquired by direct contract with larger businesses with a stake in the small business sector - customer churn hurts anyone, even big boys.

Bearing in mind that I already said software has little value, I would like to discuss our current thinking for the near future with my readers and would be delighted to get some feedback on the blog or by email. Here is the deal:

AccountsOffice and CashBook

We would make a plug-in available that would allow anyone who has affiliations with small business to offer both products free of charge to their small business clients, we may charge a small fee (GBP 200/ US$ 400/ € 300) as a one off for white labeling, if needed. Some customization can be done when the system is set up, at sign up. So you would just go online sign up to the deal and within 30 minutes you could be up and running.

I’m thinking business mentors/advisors, trade associations, magazines, office suppliers, telcos, ISPs - you get the idea. This would create some stickiness (or lower the customer churn) for these web-sites. The clients would be served well with a free accounting system including our famed 24/7 support (see Paul Druckmans - former President of the ICAEW - testimonial).

OnlineOffice

For OnlineOffice (a 5 - user license) we would put out this “advertisers” pricing, including ALL the OnlineOffice products included in our price-list to endusers:

• Up to 100 licenses - GBP 100 / US$ 200 per month ( GBP 1 / US$ 2 per lic.) ;
• Up to 1′000 licenses - GBP 500 / US$ 1′000 per month ( GBP .5 / US$ 1 per lic.);
• Up to 10′000 licenses - GBP 4′000 / US $ 8′000 per month ( GBP .4 / US$ .8 per lic.):
• Up to 100′000 licenses - GBP 20k / US $ 40k per month ( GBP .2 / US$ .4 per lic.).

Our partners would only sign up for the 100 licenses deal and we would allow up and down movement in the pricing groups without penalty. This means between 90 to 98 % of the revenue stays with our advertising partners.
This in itself would allow big + small businesses, home businesses, lifestyle business, self-employed etc. to create revenue each month - basically for putting some advertising on their web-site, catalogues, membership or just offer it with the current service. For example web-designers, internet cafes, blogs, Virtual Assistants, call centers, to name but a few examples.

There is little downside, no real cost - lets face it many websites offer google ads, the earning potential for these websites with our advertising partnering is, if you have the right readers group.

For the big boys the upside is even bigger, they could just absorb the OnlineOffice cost and offer the service free of charge to their clients, to reduce customer churn, the so called “Business Offering” would not only include for example more call minutes or a higher monthly subscription, but would add real value to the relationship between supplier and client.

For WinWeb the upside is enormous, we get to provide the Small Business Infrastructure, incl. the Live! services, our advertising expenditure would remain very low, we keep our cost down (fixed and variable) and still have the advertising reach of a big budget spender.

Isn’t this what you were talking about, Phil? I am looking forward discussing this in Amsterdam.

I think this could be fun as we are ready to launch the new US software within days. It will also give me chance to compare the CPAs (US) with the professional accountants (UK), should be interesting - I will make sure I report on my findings.

What do you think - any takers?

Tags: Accountants, Business Development, Business Mentoring, Business Start Up, Client Relations, CPAs, Entrepreneur, FREE Business Tool, ICAEW, Institute of Business Advisors, Lifestyle Business, LinkBack, Marketing/PR, Micro Business, Office/IT, On-demand, On-Demand Europe ‘07, OnlineOffice, Outsourcing, SaaS, Sales, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, SOHO, VAs, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VirtualOffice, VSB, Web 2.0, Web Technology, WebOffice, WebWare, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice

Today it is common for people to ask for VC money before they even have a business and all our cutting edge business information is about these people who want to make it big. But, let me ask you this, how does a franchisee, corner shop keeper, and other small often family run businesses make it big or more importantly do they even want to make it big.

I believe they just want to pay their bills and make a decent living. It may come as a surprise to you - a tech savvy, blog reading, internet using individual - that most businesses are just there to earn a decent living. Does this make these ventures less valuable? I think not.

In fact I can not think of anything more rewarding, while still having a private life, enjoy the kids growing up, than having just that sort of business. Whatever it is you are doing, you do it well, you keep your customers happy, deliver high quality work and make a decent living, by keeping your overheads low and your profits as high as possible.

I would think this to be a great achievement, with a lot of job satisfaction and job security. You can work for more than one organisation, so losing one is not the of the world.

I know a number of Virtual Assistants who do exactly that, they work from home (low overheads, see the kids coming from school almost every day and no traveling every morning to work), work for 5 to 15 clients (spread of risk, job security), work when they want (time for a private life) with a little network of like minded people as backup. Great way to work.

Unfortunately nobody gets excited about their businesses and I see little literature about this sort of business, why is that?

Tags: Business Idea, Client Relations, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Lifestyle Business, Micro Business, SBI, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, sme-blog, SOHO, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VirtualOffice, Web 2.0, WinWeb

Blogs I read and posts I liked, have a look:

From Phil Wainewright:

The webification of advertising - great piece, I am thinking about it.
SaaS integration without the lock-in - Not convinced for my market sector, for IT people great.
McKinsey says buy SaaS - People are getting it - finally.

From Dennis Howlett:

Where are the accountants at OpenCoffee? - What a surprise, am I shocked - not really!
Great projects, great clients - These are the ones that move industries forward.

From Vinnie Mirchandani:

The Genius of Marc Benioff - I’m not sure it ends there, SaaS and real services is the future (SaaSaS).

From David Maisters:

Do you have a trusted Advisor? - UK accountants should read this, can’t wait for the results!
Who or What is the Firm For? - Interesting question, I’ll will ask this in the SME context later.
Good to Good - That would be my clients then, most of them want to pay bills, not buy a jet!

From Zoli Erdos:

TiEcon 2007: The new face of entrepreneurship - It’s time to retire at my age!

From Jeff Cornwell:

Liability Reform and Small Business - didn’t I mention politicians before?
Impact of Over Regulation - Good for Kentucky and Maryland.
Business or Hobby? - This was where I mentioned the politicians before!

From Damian Wild:

Why young entrepreneurs don’t trust accountants - only Business Link is worse!

From Evan Carmichael:

Make yourself look big - great advice for small business.
4 Tips to Choosing a Business Name - just make sure you check for trademarks, etc.
Ways To Bootstrap Your Business - I have been saying this for years.
There is lots more of good advice for small business on this site and they will link back to you - should you have a blog - if you do a write up about them - good idea, see below.

This list does not represent any kind of judgement or preference, it is simply a list of posts I enjoyed. If you feel you have something my the small business community should know about email me or request a LinkBack.

Tags: Blogging, LinkBack, sme-blog, WinWeb

We are human, we all learn from our mistakes. Yet in business having a failure is still a stigma for most people, more problematic is the financial impact a business failure has and it creates a number of barriers to starting a new business.

This is a counter-productive situation, just when you “learned a lesson”, it is made difficult or even impossible for you to get it right the next time.This presumably because you have shown publicly that you have made a mistake, so you could make another or even the same mistake again. Most people deny making mistakes exactly for this reason, but the reality is we ALL make mistakes, I certainly do.

Small Business Infrastructure - Grow your success, contain your failure.

So how can you survive this initial “trying to get it right phase”, even if it goes wrong? You could use our Small Business Infrastructure - SBI to test drive your business and later grow it more safely into your success story.

SBI allows you to stay compliant, grow you business in an business friendly and supportive environment, outsource non-core business processes, save on overheads and capital investments and enables you to run your business on a shoestring. This allows you to try a business idea, work at it without having to quite your job or break the bank.

Being able to fail without serious consequences means you can try again, increasing your chance to create a business that can last and succeed.

So - whatever you are planning - working from home, turning a hobby into a business, you are a mum and want to work for a few hours a week or you are still working but have this idea, that might work, then give it a go.

Do it on a shoestring, no long term commitments, leases, employees - just you, your idea and WinWeb’s Small Business Infrastructure.

Tags: Accountants, Business Development, Business Failure, Business Start Up, Business Tool, Cash-Flow, CPAs, Entrepreneur, FREE Business Tool, Home Business, Homesourcing, Institute of Business Advisors, IT, Micro Business, Business Success, SaaS, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, sme-blog, SOHO, Teleworking, VAs, Very Small Business, Virtual Assitants, VirtualOffice, VSB, Web 2.0, WinWeb

It is curious, I get a lot of questions why we give some of our software away for free? Some are suspicious, others are unnerved by our approach to distribute our software.

Well to begin with the question is wrong, because we give all our software away, we in reality only charge for hosting and associated costs, such as our 24×7 support, bandwidth use, hard disk space, etc.! So I guess the real question should be has software value?

Let me start by reiterating that we provide services for the small business sector, the smallest end of this spectrum being self-employed, lifestyle businesses, home businesses, small offices, start-ups up to 50 people companies. These guys get little “percived” value from buying accounting software, so they don’t. This market sector has always been impossible to service, not so anymore.

On-Demand Software + On-Demand Services + 24 hr Support & Advice = SBI

Having said that, we are all about providing a Small Business Infrastructure (SBI), that means using on-demand software (SaaS, web-ware, Web 2.0, etc.) to provide on-demand services, 24×7 support, business advice and intelligence, business compliance and other benefits to our clients.

Our aim is to drastically reduce the mortality rate among the small business community.

So in the end we do only see value in our software because it enables us to provide services to our clients. Ergo, we do not belief that the software by itself has a great deal of value. We allow other companies to offer our software products white labeled to their small business clients on very favorable terms, so they can afford to give the software to their clients for free (including OnlineOffice), after all who hasn’t a customer churn problem these days.

Tags: AccountsOffice, Business Development, Business Idea, Business Infrastructure, Business Start Up, Business Tool, Cash-Flow, Client Relations, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, FREE Business Tool, Home Business, Homesourcing, Institute of Business Advisors, IT, Lifestyle Business, Micro Business, On-demand, On-Demand Europe ‘07, OnlineOffice, Open Source Software, Outsourcing, SaaS, SBI, Selfemployed, Small Business Infrastructure, smb, sme, sme-blog, Software as a Service, SOHO, Teleworking, VAs, Very Small Business, VirtualOffice, VSB, Web 2.0, WebOffice, WebWare, WinWeb, WinWeb AccountsOffice , WinWeb CashBook, WinWeb OnlineOffice

It is Jeff Cornwall day today - I do not need to add anything to this!

Tags: Bad Government, Bad Business, sme-blog