Monthly Archives: April 2013

People don’t buy what your business does; they buy why you do it.

I recently watched a Ted Talk given by Simon Sinek called ‘How Great Leaders Inspire Action’.

The main point Simon made was that people don’t buy what your business does; they buy why you do it. That got me to thinking about why I do what I do.

I accidentally started my business in early 2010 after losing my full time job two weeks before Christmas. As that was in the midst of the recession and I live in a small town, there were no jobs to apply for. So I started responding to ads on Craig’s List posted by small businesses needing occasional help with their bookkeeping. I also stumbled on an opportunity to serve as a mentor at Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NACET) that brought in clients as well. Work also came along in the way of part-time jobs, mostly temporary. Somehow I made ends meet. And suddenly I had a business. I made mistakes along the way of course, and learned many things along the way. Continuing education is something I engage in every week in the form of podcasts, webinars, and lots of reading. My business slowly evolved from just wanting to earn a living to looking for the best ways to serve my clients.

Child with learning difficultiesMy goal is to take the confusion and frustration out of small business accounting by providing training and ongoing accounting services. Small business accounting isn’t just about QuickBooks any more. Cloud based software offers many tools for running a business. I believe in choosing just the right tools, balancing necessity and cost, to streamline all of the administrative tasks (including accounting) of a business.

As I continue on the journey of being a business owner it is my hope that I find more and better ways to serve the small business community.

Why do YOU do it?

Software Integration – What is It?

LaptopHandshake-copyIn the age of “there’s an app for that”, most software manufacturers proclaim their product’s ease of software integration. But what does that mean? In short, it means one software program shares its data with other programs.

Now, does software integration matter to you? Don’t get caught up in the hype. Think about how YOU and YOUR BUSINESS will benefit by integration. Does this save time in your workflow and help keep your data consistent or does it create new problems?

Before running off to check which of your software programs will integrate with others that you are using, a few things need to be considered:

1. Not every program integrates with every other program out there. If integration between products is something you feel will benefit your business, keep compatibility in mind when choosing software solutions.

For example, you have contact relationship management (CRM) software (Highrise, CapsuleCRM) that you use to track sales leads. What happens when one sales lead becomes a customer who just placed an order? Wouldn’t it be nice if information for that new customer (no longer just
a sales lead) would automatically go into your accounting software to create an invoice? That’s where integration comes in.

2. Not all integrations are well written. Sorry, but it is a fact. Realize whether the integration is in beta testing and also look for reviews on how well the integration works. Some can cause errors and a lot of inconvenience on your part.

3. Know what data is shareable and how often. This could be minutes, hours, or daily and can impact your workflow.

4. Understand which direction the data is shared and whether it’s a one-way or two-way operation. This will impact which program you enter updates into first.

Continuing our example above, if the CRM can send data to your accounting software but cannot receive it, you now know all changes to customer data must be entered into the CRM first, because the CRM will share the information with your accounting software.

Software integration can be a great timesaver. Do your homework and learn the facts before setting one up.