Loading...
Answers
MenuWhat platform or software could help small biz to stay on the top of their numbers and allow them to plan for future enhancements in their biz?
I have problems in staying on the top of my numbers. Accounting is helping but not giving a real projection on how can i use my numbers for future plans. Any suggestions?
Answers
A typical and ubiquitous problem faced by any small, medium business is breaking the status-quo. The problem often fails to get resolved due to the sales/number focused approach envisioned by the organization. As a matter of fact, deciding around future enhancement (s) requires a lucid understanding of existing challenges/limitations around internal-external process, people, strategic road map, market trend and insights.
Why accounting is not giving you a real projections is because, may be, you aren't evaluating your existing functional process and people around changing dynamics and contemporary niche modus-operandi. May be you should focus on enablers than end numbers. Hope this will help.
Please feel free to reach out to me for support that you may need. Thank You.
I don't think the answer is in the platform/software, but what reports are being generated and what is being measured. Depending upon what your expansion plans are you'll measure different numbers. If you'd like to drill down on growth planning, we can get on a call and I can diagnose where you are and share my experiences with you.
These are the following software that would help your small business stay on top of the numbers:
1. Best Free Software: Wave Accounting
Wave Accounting was created in 2010 by co-founders Kirk Simpson and James Lochrie who were frustrated by the lack of free and easy-to-use financial software for small businesses. Today Wave has more than 250 employees serving small businesses around the world. We chose it as the best accounting software because it lets small businesses track income and expenses, send invoices, scan receipts, track sales taxes, and more, all for free.
Wave helps users connect multiple bank accounts and credit cards and set up profiles for multiple businesses to help keep track of income and expenses. The software organizes accounts, payments, and invoices to make tax time easier and also offers robust reports to help identify cash flow trends.
Users can create and send professional, branded invoices from Wave’s dashboard or mobile app. The invoicing software can set up recurring invoices and automatic credit card payments for repeat customers and automatically syncs invoice and payment information with its accounting software.
Wave’s mobile app lets users scan receipts anywhere and sync them seamlessly with their Wave account to help keep track of business expenses. Users can also email invoices to their Wave account or scan receipts offline to be synced the next time the device is online.
Although Wave is completely free to use, it also offers additional paid services, including accepting credit cards and bank payments and setting up payroll for employees and contractors.
Wave Accounting
a) Free accounting
b) Free invoicing
c) Free receipt scanning
Wave Payments
a) All Wave Accounting features
b) 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction for Visa, Mastercard, Discover
c) 3.4% + 30¢ per transaction for American Express
d) 1% per ACH transaction ($1 minimum fee)
Wave Payroll
a) All Wave Accounting features
b) $35 plus $6 per employee/contractor per month (tax-service states)
c) $20 plus $6 per employee/contractor per month (self-service states)
2. Best Website Builder: Wix
Wix was founded in 2006 by three entrepreneurs frustrated with the difficulty and expense of creating a website. Today, the company has a staff of 2,700 employees worldwide and 150 million users in 190 countries. We chose it for the best website builder since it lets users create professional-looking websites with no coding knowledge for an affordable price.
Wix comes with hundreds of professional templates and a drag-and-drop editor, making it easy to create a professional business site in just minutes. Every website is designed to look great on mobile devices and features engaging effects including animation, video backgrounds, and scrolling.
Businesses that want to sell online can take advantage of Wix’s advanced e-commerce features. Users can set up an online store, manage inventory and orders, and get revenue and conversion rate reports using a simple, intuitive dashboard. Wix also let’s store owners accept payments via Wix Payments, PayPal, and AliPay and integrates with Instagram and Facebook.
Although creating a basic website is free, upgrading to a paid plan is the only way to unlock Wix’s business and e-commerce features. All Wix’s paid plans include a 14-day free trial, free hosting, Google Analytics, and the ability to link a custom domain.
Business Basic Plan
a) $23 per month
b) Accept online payments
c) Unlimited bandwidth
d) 20GB storage
e) Connect your domain
f) Remove Wix ads
g) Five video hours
h) Google Analytics
i) Free domain for one year
j) $300 ad vouchers
k) Site Booster app
l) Visitor Analytics app
Business Unlimited Plan
a) $27 per month
b) 35GB storage
c) All Business Basic Plan features
d) 10 video hours
e) Professional logo
f) Social media logo files
Business VIP Plan
a) $49 per month
b) Accept online payments
c) Unlimited bandwidth
d) 500GB storage
e) All Business Unlimited Plan features
f) Unlimited video hours
g) Priority Response
h) VIP Support
3. Best Email Marketing Software: MailChimp
MailChimp was created in 2001 by web design agency owners Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius who wanted to create an affordable email marketing service for small businesses. It has grown into a full-fledged marketing platform offering landing pages, websites, postcards, and more. We chose it as the best email marketing software because it offers small businesses high-level email marketing with both free and affordable paid plans.
MailChimp’s free email software makes it easy for business owners new to email marketing to get started. The platform offers premade email templates, opt-in popups and signup forms, audience segmentation, and basic personalization. Users also get a mobile app that lets them view campaign performance and send emails with just a few clicks.
MailChimp’s drag-and-drop templates let users create professional, branded emails with no design skills. Built-in analytics tool also keeps track of open rates and clicks, and segments data to help show what is working and what’s not. Users can automatically send out targeted emails based on user behaviours, like a welcome message for new signups or a related product recommendation for a recent buyer.
Most small businesses can get far using MailChimp’s free plan. The paid plans add more subscribers and lists as well as more detailed automations:
Free Plan
a) FREE
b) 2,000 subscriber limit
c) 10,000 emails per month
d) Basic email templates
e) Integrations with 200+ apps
f) Landing pages and popup forms
g) Google, Facebook, and Instagram retargeting ads
h) Single-step automations
i) Segmentation
j) Basic reports
Essentials Plan
a) $9.99 per month (based on the number of subscribers) *
b) 50,000 subscriber limit
c) 500,000 emails per month
d) All Free Plan features
e) Access to all email templates
f) A/B testing
g) Remove Mailchimp footer
h) 24/7 email and chat support
Standard Plan
a) $14.99 per month (based on the number of subscribers) *
b) 100,000 subscriber limits
c) 1.2 million emails per month
d) All Essentials Plan features
e) Behaviour-based automations
f) Multi-step automations
g) Send time optimization
h) Delivery by time zone
Use the MailChimp calculator to determine pricing based on the size of the email list.
4. Best Project Management Software: Trello
In 2011, a company called Fog Creek Software launched a prototype of a project management tool designed to solve high-level planning issues. Later named Trello, the software grew to over 500,000 users in just one year and 4.75 million by 2014. We chose it as the best project management software because it offers a free, flexible, and visual way to manage projects.
Trello uses Kanban-style boards for task and project tracking and makes it easy to manage both individual projects and ongoing workflows. Its simple and intuitive interface lets users create custom boards and lists with cards that can include images, files, links, checklists, due dates, and more.
Users can get started in seconds with a blank board or choose from hundreds of categorized templates created by other users that can be modified as needed. Trello offers integrations with Slack, Google Drive, Dropbox, and dozens of other third-party platforms as well as mobile apps to streamline collaboration and workflows.
Trello offers a lot with its free plan including unlimited personal boards, lists, and cards. The free plan is limited to 10MB per file attachment, 10 team boards, and one third-party integration (Power-Up) per board. The Business Class plan comes with expanded features and a 14-day free trial:
Free Plan
a) FREE
b) Unlimited personal boards
c) Unlimited cards
d) Unlimited lists
e) 10MB per file attachment
f) 10 team boards
g) One Power-Up per board
Business Class Plan
a) $9.99 per user per month
b) All Free Plan features
c) 250MB per file attachment
d) Unlimited team boards
e) Unlimited Power-Ups
5. Best Team Communication Software: Slack
Slack was originally built as an internal communication tool for a game development company started by Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield in 2009. Launched publicly in 2013, it currently has over 12 million users in over 150 countries. We chose it as the best team communication software because it offers real-time messaging, feedback, and collaboration in a free, online platform.
Slack was developed to eliminate the inefficiencies and delays of email communication. The software lets users create channels that can be organized around a topic, team, project, or even a client. Channels can be public and open to all users of a Slack account or private and accessed by invitation only.
Besides communicating in real-time, Slack offers tons of integrations letting teams share files, create polls, schedule meetings, and connect to third-party project management, cloud storage, and productivity tools. The platform offers free, one-click voice and video calls and even lets users spin-off discussion threads to keep larger conversations focused and uncluttered.
One of Slack’s most useful features is its search function. No more sorting through emails or written notes hoping to find that one valuable piece of information. Slack lets users search for a conversation, mention, or user and share or bookmark it no matter how long ago it took place.
Businesses that only need a single workspace, one-on-one video calls, and only a few app integrations can get by with a free Slack account. The free account also limits searches to 10,000 messages:
Free Plan
a) FREE
b) Search up to 10,000 messages
c) Up to 10 third-party app integrations
d) One-to-one video and voice calls
e) 5GB storage per workspace
Standard Plan
a) $8 per user per month
b) Unlimited message search
c) Unlimited third-party app integrations
d) One-to-one video and voice calls
e) Group video calls up to 15 people
f) Screen sharing
g) 10GB storage per user
h) Guest accounts and shared channels
i) Priority support
Plus, Plan
a) $15 per user per month
b) All Standard Plan features
c) 20GB storage per user
d) User management
e) 24/7 support with four-hour first response time
6. Best Hiring Software: Freshteam
Freshteam was developed in 2017 by Freshworks, a developer of communication, sales, and marketing tools since 2012. The software allows businesses to manage hiring, onboarding, time-off, and employee information. We chose it as the best hiring software because it helps small businesses hire new employees in an easy-to-use and affordable online platform.
Freshteam’s applicant tracking system (ATS) makes it easy for small businesses to post jobs, screen resumes, track applicants, and even send offer letters. Users get access to job description templates and can post positions on free job boards, including LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, and Adzuna.
Freshteam helps users create custom workflows so they can track candidates from application, to interview, to hiring. The software can also automatically convert emails into applications and add senders as applicants. Finally, Freshteam lets users create a mobile-friendly career page and share job postings on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Once an employee is hired, Freshteam sends her all the paperwork she needs to sign electronically as well as employee handbooks, other internal documents, and a welcome letter. The software adds new employees to the business’s org chart, securely stores employee data, and can even manage employee time off.
Freshteam’s basic plan, called Sprout, is free for companies with fewer than 50 employees and lets users post up to three jobs. Every plan also comes with a 21-day free trial and 24/7 email and 24/5 phone support:
Sprout Plan
a) FREE
b) Three job postings
c) Basic career site
d) Recruitment team inbox
e) Candidate application via email
f) Employee directory
g) Employee org chart
h) Mobile apps (iOS and Android)
i) Basic time-off management
Blossom Plan
a) $50 per month per 50 users
b) 10 job postings
c) Customizable career site
d) All Sprout Plan features
e) Recruiting automations
f) Custom interview scorecards and kits
g) Custom hiring pipelines
h) Interview scheduling with Google and Outlook Calendar
i) Job board Integrations
• Time-off approval workflows
• Up to two holiday calendars
• Up to two time-off policies
Garden Plan
• $100 per month per 50 users
• Unlimited job postings
• Advanced career site
• All Blossom Plan features
• Social recruiting
• Offer management
• New hire onboarding
• Unlimited holiday calendars
• Sponsored job postings on Indeed
7. Best Document Management Software: Google Workspace
Formerly Google Suite, Google Workplace is a collection of online office tools, including email, document creation and management, cloud storage, calendars, chat, video meetings, and more. We chose it as the best document management software because it offers secure, branded, cloud-based document creation, storage, collaboration, and sharing.
Google Workspace is a great option for small businesses that want to create an efficient, collaborative, cloud-based work environment without having to pay for expensive software or worrying about everyone having the same computer. Because every tool in the Google Workspace platform is a Google product, users can move seamlessly from app to app.
Businesses can start by creating a branded email address using Gmail, one of the most popular mail apps on the marketplace. Other tools include Google Calendars for team scheduling; Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with real-time collaboration; Google Drive for cloud storage; Google Chat for team messaging; and Google Meet for video meetings.
Aside from the integrations between each app, Google Workspace also lets users connect to hundreds of third-party platforms, including Zoom, DocuSign, Salesforce, Trello, Asana, and many more. Google Workspace add-ons only access the minimum required data needed to complete an action to ensure that each business’s information stays secure.
Although anyone can get access to all Google Workspace apps by signing up for a free Gmail account, Google Workspace paid plans allow businesses to create business email addresses, get more cloud storage, and increase security. Google also offers a 14-day free trial on any Google Workspace paid plan:
Free Plan
a) FREE
b) Personal email account
c) One-on-one chat
d) Personal calendar
e) Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides
f) 15 GB Google Drive cloud storage
Business Start
a) $6 per user per month
b) Business email accounts
c) All Free Plan features
d) Google Chat and Google Meet
e) Shared calendars
f) 30 GB Google Drive cloud storage per user
g) Admin controls
h) 24/7 standard support
Business Standard
a) $12 per user per month
b) All Business Start Plan features
c) 2 TB Google Drive cloud storage per user
d) Cloud Search 1st party data
Business Plus
a) $18 per user per month
b) All Business Standard Plan features
c) 5 TB Google Drive cloud storage per user
d) Vault and advanced endpoint management
e) eDiscovery and Retention Policies
Enterprise
a) All Business Plus Plan features
b) Customizable with no limit on storage
c) Cloud Search 1st & 3rd party data
d) Security Center
e) Enhanced management and compliance tools
f) 24/7 enhanced support
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
Related Questions
-
Which is better 1099 vs W2? See details...
I'm assuming you're talking about yourself, working for another company? The first thing to consider is that a "1099" is NOT an employee, rather an "independent contractor". The IRS takes it seriously when a company claims 1099 contractors, when in fact, these contractors are treated as employees (the IRS wants payroll tax and will fine companies that miscategorize). To be a 1099 contractor, rather than an employee (W-2), you must have complete control over your schedule - when you work, how much ect. There are other criteria, but this is the main one - you must clearly not be treated the same as an employee. The other thing to consider is that if you are a 1099 contractor, you are responsible for paying and submitting your own income tax and self employment tax to the state and the IRS. It is more advantageous for a company to pay you as a 1099 contractor as they save paying employer portion of payroll taxes. Also you will not count as an employee for the Affordable Care Act (which impacts companies with over 50 employees). Hope this helps. KathrynKC
-
How do you convert your users into evangelists, to push your product? The product in discussion is a map based product (both navigation & travel apps)
If you want long term evangelists you're going to have to think outside of the relationship between your product and the customer and focus specifically on the customer. Identify the influencers who are already engaging your brand through social media channels and see what you can learn about them. If their profile picture is them playing an instrument, you might send then a gift card to Itunes or Guitar Center. In Short: Spend a little money and show your interest in them instead of just rewarding their interest in you. I had Wheat Thins send me a box of crackers and that was cool but I sent one tweet out and was done. General Electric saw that I was wearing a Batman shirt and sent me a really cool book as well as a hand written thank you note. I regularly engage and promote content about GE.MB
-
How should we divide up expense account amounts between partners?
I'm going to answer you with my own experience. The way you mentioned to divide the expenses makes total sense and it's consider the "rational" thing to do. I have seen it work many times and it's what many would consider "fair". The problem (and this is counterintuitive) is that we are humans with emotions and we can't separate us from them. Once someone starts buying nicer things the "ego" hits in, also the "jealousy" and the competitive nature. This brings bad culture and a worst environment. I know you think "we are different", "it won't happen to us" but it actually does and it's not your fault, it's just our nature. My solution is the following. Treat the company as a separate entity from the three of you. So the company (not you) have revenue and costs. THE company can have expenses and they should be as little as possible to run efficient and lean. THE company has to create the most profits as long as it's in the same direction of creating value for their clients. Now, because the company has shareholders (you guys/gals) the profits it generates will go into your pockets 50/30/20. This is after your salaries, that depends on your place in the company and that is money totally entitled to each of you. The profits can be expended as whatever you want because it's like part of your salaries. You will think this makes no sense due that is just a "technical" step. But it's important to separate you from your company. Keep personal and professional in each side of the table. Hope this helped :) If you want to reach out I would be happy to talk. I have helped many family companies to also deal with this kind of issues. Have a great dayJC
-
Can I use Bench.co + Xero for my business?
This is a great question. The world of accounting/bookkeeping can be a confusing array of options for non accountants. Let's address the software question first. Let me start by saying that my firm is relatively agnostic to software, we work with dozens. I'm familiar with Xero and my firm has worked with it, and if someone comes to us already on it, we stay with it. It's a solid piece of software, certainly works. And it's a very fashionable choice right now due to inroads their marketing has made with the startup community. The big dog in the market is QuickBooks On-Line (QBO), and when I say big dog, various version of QuickBooks have easily 10x the number of current customers that Xero has. Why does this matter? The usability of the software from a user experience is about the same, but Xero is still trying to play catch up to QuickBooks On-Line in terms of features. For instance, they have payroll rolled out for "a few states and are adding more each month". Anything innovative that Xero comes out with QuickBooks is going to quickly copy and add to their product, because they are huge and have the resources to quickly adapt. This is not a situation of the iPhone putting Blackberry out of business, QuickBooks isn't going anywhere. Likely end game is that at some point QuickBooks acquires Xero and moves everyone over to QBO. Lastly, every bookkeeper knows QuickBooks, some know Xero, and there are hundreds of developers developing software that integrates with QuickBooks. So, while Xero is a perfectly adequate piece of software, we’re talking the platform for your accounting, go with QuickBooks On-line. The subject of a bookkeeper is tricker. Do you go with a person or a process solution? Full disclosure here, my firm does outsourced bookkeeping for a living, so you have to take that into account when viewing my answer. I haven’t worked with Bench.co, but it looks very intriguing, and pricing is quite aggressive. They also look very easy to engage with. The down side is that is appears to be a person based solution. You get assigned a bookkeeper, and then good luck. The skill of individual bookkeepers varies widely from damn good to truly awful. They often hook up with several services like this, so their loyalties are divided. Additionally, they are often working with up to a dozen clients, and what typically happens is one of their clients starts growing quickly. All other clients get pushed aside while they focus on their largest client because they can’t afford to lose them. A couple of other disadvantages are that, because they are on their own, you are limited to just their skill set, they have no one else to check with in sticky situations, and when they go on vacation, your accounting goes on vacation, too. These are all things that may be fine for you if you’ve got a relatively small business that doesn’t need daily attention to its accounting. The other alternative is a firm that specialized in outsourced accounting. There are several firms out there, you can find them (and us of course) with a simple search of the internet. The advantage to the better firms in this space is that they typically will assign you a team of bookkeepers/accountants so that you have backup in case one member of the team is on vacation or leaves to take a full time job somewhere. These solutions also will typically come wrapped with software they would suggest for your business. Finally, you aren’t limited to knowledge base of the one person working on your account. You have a team, and really the knowledge base of the entire firm at your fingertips. Of course you pay a little more for this, but the hourly rates are often not that much more than individual bookkeepers. And in the long run you may end up spending a lot less by not having to come behind a bookkeeper that maybe wasn’t so good and clean up the mess. So if you plan on scaling your business beyond a few $200k a year, it may be best to start out with a firm based solution rather than an individual solution. Side note on Bench.co: I can’t tell what software platform they are on. If they are using a proprietary platform, you will find it very hard to move your accounting to another solution if you’re not satisfied with their solution. Something to ask if you go with them. So, I think that about covers it. I’ve probably told you way more than you wanted to know, but I’m always available to schedule a call if you want to dive in a little deeper. Just let me know.CM
-
What is the best way to get a physical product to market in 2014?
I've been in ecommerce for over a decade and have co-founded and helped start companies collectively driving over $10MM in ecommerce sales. I've consulted for Fortune 500 ecommerce stores. Here's my advice if you're just getting started without a big budget. Note: Some of this is copied from my answer to a similar question. #1) PROVE THE ASSUMPTION: Start with a dropshipper's existing products to figure out what sells best before you spend money on manufacturing and warehousing. Amazon is perfect for this - they will pay you 4%-10% to promote 253,000,000 products (http://bit.ly/1q2M85R) - you can sign up at https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ Alternately, get very small amounts of the product (maybe even just buy some from a competitor) and try selling them on ebay and amazon. Nothing hurts more than having $50,000 of imported product gathering dust in your fulfillment warehouse while listening to a voicemail from a debt collector. #2) SOURCING There are several options here. Many people prefer Alibaba.com. Warning - if you use Alibaba, you are stepping into a tank of pirahnas. There are more scam "manufacturers" on Alibaba than real ones. Use Escrow or AliSecure Pay if you buy. If the supplier says they only take T/T, Western Union, Moneygram - just say no! I prefer American Made when possible. If you're like me, try Ariba's Discovery Service - http://bit.ly/1q2NFZu - which will allow you to find suppliers with a physical presence in the USA. Note: Many things can be made on demand (someone purchases, one gets made and shipped) instead of in 500+ manufacturing runs. Start there if you can - Books on CreateSpace.com, Clothes on CafePress.com, Playing Cards on MakePlayingCards.com, etc - to test out your exact product. If you decide to source by purchasing product in bulk, find a fulfillment company to store and fulfill (ship) your orders. Amazon does this - http://services.amazon.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon.htm - but they might decide to crush you like a bug if you're successful (http://bit.ly/1q2V7DX). Other fulfillment companies for e-commerce include http://www.shipwire.com/ and http://www.webgistix.com/ #3) LAUNCH YOUR SITE This is an entire topic in itself. One of the fastest ways I know for newbies to start in e-commerce is with a SquareSpace.com store. Other options include GoDaddy.com and BigCommerce.com. If you can stand to use the templates they provide instead of trying to customize them, you'll save yourself a lot of hassle and expense - customization usually looks terrible unless a designer/coder was hired to do the work. If you do customize, find someone on odesk.com or elance.com. If you're not hard up for money, just build a custom store from the start. If you can't do that, save up some money and then go for it. Focus on increasing conversion rate - for every 100 visitors, get 1 to buy. Then 2. Then 4. Then 8 (8%). #4) MARKET Figure out where your competition is advertising. Are they getting free, "organic" SEO results on Google? Using social media to drive billions of dollars of sales? (NOTE: That was a joke - don't count on social media as the nucleus of your marketing campaign. Please!) Are they paying for Google ads ("PPC"), buying email lists, using strategic partnerships for promotion, relying on shopping portals, using banner advertising, or something else entirely? There's probably a good reason - figure out what it will take to play in those waters. At the same time, try to find a small enough niche that you can win in it. #5) BEWARE Be careful about artsy things. If someone is attracted to something artistic, it's usually because there is a story behind the art for them, or because it's cheap. If you're going to try to sell artistic things, you may want to consider doing some serious research first about who has been successful in that area. Look at etsy.com to see handmade artsy items (very cool). #6) WORTH A LOOK Worth checking out as you start your journey: Art.com, yessy.com, Artfire.com, ArtPal.com #7) DEEP FOUNDATION If you need help, reach out for a 15 minute call and we'll discuss a go-to-market strategy specific to your goals.RD
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.