As an IT professional and a small business owner, we have a variety of clients, and 99% of them are perfect angels. However, we do get the odd person calling up, and totally missing the whole idea that we're a professional company, and expect amazing works and wonders from us for a budget so small, you'd not be able to fill up your petrol tank with it.
That view isn't just mine - it's echo'd very nicely by the guys over here. Well worth a read!
A1 Business Forums has been around since Feb 2008, and has steadily grown both in members and traffic since that point. At work, we've been responsible for doing the design and continual support of the vBulletin forum, as well as assisting in the initial setup. Aside from that, I've also been an active member, racking up around 2,000 posts since I last checked.
Registration is simple and free!
It was initially setup by Ray as a UK based forum where small business owners could go to get helpful advice and support, as well as have somewhere to have relaxing chat & banter. The forum covers a wide range of subjects from Accounting to Search Engine Optimisation and a forum to get quotes from a vast number of suppliers who visit the forum. Since it's conception, I don't think Ray, I or anyone else imagined it would reach the stage where within 8 months, it has over 3,000 active members and 80,000 posts!
Due to rising commitments at work, Ray offered to sell the forum to me and one of the other admins, Phil over at Open Mind. We naturally jumped at the chance, having both had experience in running large forums (fora?) and with both of us running successful small businesses, it's definately something that interests both of us!
So, the business forums are now under new management, and we're both very excited with the plans we have for the forum in the coming weeks and months!
I try not to post work-related stuff here, but I know several small business owners read this, and I'm sure you'd benefit from the wealth of knowledge at the forum - so go sign up!
As you may or may not know, I run my own business. However, part of being your own boss is that you have to sort out your own accounts - or at least up to a point. Before I looked around for some software to help, I made up a short list of must-have's:
After a look around, and talking to a few other people, I decided to give Kashflow a spin. Kashflow "is an online tool specifically designed to help owner managers in small businesses manage their accounts" - and does a mighty fine job in my opinion.
My first issue with Kashflow was the bright colour scheme. The pink and blue may work well on Flickr, but it doesn't really do the site much justice when they are aiming for small businesses. However, this is something that can be overlooked based on the features.
Getting used to Kashflow is a piece of cake. As with any system, you really need to sit down and have a little play. Luckily, they have a feature so you can delete all information from your account, so what I did was setup a few test clients, made some invoices, created some purchases etc.
Kashflow also has the ability to create a multitude of reports. These can include Profit & Loss reports on a month by month basis, Balance Sheets, your quarterly VAT return, as well as a dozen or so reports specifically crafted for your Income and Expenditure. Far more than what most businesses will need. I would hazard a guess that these reports may well aid my accountant in his end of year paperwork, and will hopefully save some money!
At the moment, Kashflow is available on a 60-day free trial, and you don't even need to give them your credit card details - so it's definately worth a shot. After the 60-day trial, it'll cost you £15.99 a month normally, however, you can get a discounted rate of £14.99 a month by clicking the image on the right.
Do you currently use anything for maintaining your accounts? I'd be interested in what others have to say based on their experience!
Glad everything is okay though!
