This troubled economy is fueling home-based business growth.
John Tozzi of Business Week reported on June 2, 2009 that “SBA sees a lending shift”. Within this report John highlights that while small business lending was still growing through the first half of 2008, much of the growth was via credit cards rather than traditional business loans. “The shift may reflect changing demand for small business credit. Internet companies and home-based businesses have less need for larger loans because they need fewer hard assets, such as machinery or vehicles.”
Raymund Flandez of the WallStreet Journal reported on June 2, 2009 that “Entrepreneurs pack up and go home”. Raymund points out that growing trend to cut expenses during the recession, more small businesses around the country are ditching their storefronts. Among the challenges cited by Raymund include zoning ordinances, new insurance, marketing costs, and making it appear to loyal customers that nothing significant has changed. When small businesses move home, many of them are returning to their roots.
Small business technology is making it easier and more affordable to run your small business from home. In other words, this trend will likely continue to escalate long past the economic recovery due to the advantages of owning a home based business.
According to a survey by Findlaw.com, 61% of Amercians have started or thought about starting their own small business. It is estimated that 70 million Americans will look into starting their own home-based internet business in the next five years. The following are among the top small business solutions and resources for people who have started a home-based business or are considering starting one:
Microsoft Office provides the essential suite of business software, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
QuickBooks provides the leading accounting software for invoicing, keeping customer records, tracking your inventory, and managing your business's finances in the same application.
Intuit Solution Marketplace provides add-ons to QuickBooks to handle business functions such as inventory management and optimization, payroll, credit card processing, etc… Home based business owners have to wear multiple hats and these solutions can provide a great way to improve productivity with greater results. It is impossible for any person to know everything and these solutions can provide the wisdom and expertise to make better decisions.
Phitch provides the leading inventory optimization platform featured on Intuit Solution Marketplace and the SBA’s SBDCNet. It guides to optimize your inventory so you can ensure superior customer service while maximizing your financial performance. It integrates with QuickBooks to leverage existing data to reveal optimum inventory levels in three clicks of the mouse with easy to understand color coded inventory alerts.
Stamps.com integrates with QuickBooks and provides the ability to print postage right from your computer so you do not have to run to the post office each time you need to ship a package.
Adobe GoLive provides software that can help you develop and design an effective site.
Microsoft Publisher provides a low-cost publishing package that is useful for designing promotional materials and newsletters for your business.
Adobe Acrobat provides a software package to create PDF documents that can be read by any computer using the free Adobe Reader application, making it the preferred document format for sharing files between colleagues or clients.
Business Plan Pro provides an easy to use process to create a business plan, featuring step-by-step instructions, 500+ sample business plans, and more.
MyBizHomePage provides free reports of QuickBooks financial data including nice graphic dashboard reports but also setup alerts for accounts payable etc. I like the big picture and easy snap shots of our finances as well as the ability to use alerts because it is easy to not see something coming when you are wearing multiple hats. This is easier and faster than exporting data from QuickBooks to Excel to generate my own dashboard.
BizEquity provides a free and easy to use for business valuation to help secure financing as well as boost performance. Financing is an issue that is very hot today for small business. Business valuation is a complex issue but this tool makes it so that anyone can perform an analysis. Furthermore you can better understand how you can improve your chances of securing financing, bring in investors, etc. This is much easier and more powerful than using an Excel spreadsheet as you are provided with a great report and analysis.
Google Analytics provides website traffic analysis. You need to know your traffic and what is working and what is not. For example, how many pages are visitors going to, what are they going to, how much time do they spend, are they new or returning etc.. I check this daily. With this goes Google Adsense and Google Adwords.
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant web news based on your topic, such as your company, product, industry, market etc….. I really focus on news relevant to my customers – what are their points of pain. This is easier and more powerful than doing a Google search on a regular basis.
StartPR helps you find, manage and respond to mentions of your company, your brand, your products, your service and your people online. You need to stay on top of the good and the bad that is said about you.
LinkedIn provides access to over 40 million professionals to exchange information, ideas and business opportunities. I do not focus on the number of connections I have made, I focus on taking actions via mail, phone, and in person. LinkedIn is a great way to find names and get that first introduction. I really like the groups that you can join as well as the ability to search by company name to get a list of potential contacts. The groups are a great way to post discussions, news, and initiate connections/introductions.
Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time with millions all over the world. Twitter is a great tool to initiate a relationship. It is also a great tool to broadcast new releases etc..
WebEx provides quick and easy desktop sharing plus phone conferencing. The ability for us to provide online demonstrations has been very important. Once someone sees how easy and powerful Phitch is, they really appreciate the value that our solution provides. We also have our demonstration on YouTube.
LegalZoom helps you create reliable legal documents from your home or office. Simply answer a few questions online and your documents will be prepared within 48 hours
Constant Contact Whether you're looking to send an email newsletter, a high-impact email promotion, an email event invitation, an online survey, or build your email list, discover how Constant Contact can help you get it done
Litmos is an online training tool which allows you to create videos, PowerPoint slides, and instructional documents for your clients or employees. As we grow, we need to free up time to run the business while ensuring that we provide the same level of customer service and attention to detail as we did on our first client.
DocLanding is a file management system that financial standard compliant for the highest level of security. As we grow, we need to leverage employees, vendors, service providers, and advisors that are located remotely – we need a tool to share information securely.
Mojo Help Desk is a powerful online CRM which allows you to track customer requests, allocate the requests to staff, and communicate the progress to the customer. Just like training, we need to ensure that we continue our attention to detail for our clients.
Basecamp is web based project management system that enables milestone tracking, action item tracking, time tracking and project management reporting. We are getting numerous requests to expand our platform to be compatible with additional accounting and ERP packages. We need to track these projects as our hopper expands and again pay that same attention to detail as we did on our first solution as they are expecting the features – powerful, easy to use, and affordable.
Resources
SBDCNET The mission of the Small Business Development Center National Information Clearinghouse (SBDCNet) is to meet the information needs of the SBDC community in the United States and its territories. The Office of Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) provides management assistance to current and prospective small business owners. SBDCNET serves as a resource providing timely, relevant research, web-based information, and training to SBDC counselors and their small business clients.
ASBDC The Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC) is a partnership program uniting private enterprise, government, higher education and local nonprofit economic development organizations. We are dedicated to the sound development of small business throughout America. Hosted by leading universities, colleges and state economic development agencies, and funded in part through a partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration, approximately 1,000 service centers are available to provide no-cost consulting and low-cost training.
SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).