1Manop - Lessons From a One Man Business

Lessons Learned #4 - Business Accounting Software

2008-05-31T19:08:00.000-07:00

For over a year now we have been struggling and testing out different business accounting methods. When we first started out, we attempted to keep everything tracked via simply using Microsoft Excel but soon found ourselves in a mess of spreadsheets and different tables. The lesson learned there is that unless one is a seasoned accounting professional who is knowledgable in all aspects of accounting design, it can be quite time consuming to maintain, and particularly to make changes to, your accounting architecture when you are only using MS Excel.

Our next step was to upgrade to using tailored business accounting software and we had to make a choice between the industry standard, Intuit Quickbooks and Microsoft Small Business Accounting.

Our Pros and Cons after testing out both softwares for a limited period.

Intuit Quickbooks:
- Simple user interface which can be confusing before one gains familiarity
- Many years as the industry standard which means a lot of online support via forums etc.
- Similarly, as the industry standard, it has had many years to develop and refine its product

MS Small Business Accounting:
- Interface feels more simple than Quickbooks
- Incorporates and uploads very simply from MS Office, particularly excel
- Incorporates and uploads simply from other interfaces, such as payments via Google Checkout
- Not as much support and discussion on the web about this software

After testing out both softwares (for QB we used QB Pro 2008), we decided to migrate to the Quickbooks format as we felt most comfortable with the package and feel as though we could benefit from all of the help groups and discussion forums on the web. We have fully migrated to QB and have been very happy with the software package and find it quite simple to use and keep track of our operations (definitely better than just using spreadsheets!!).

Lesson Learned #3 - Google Checkout Tips

2008-05-20T05:28:00.000-07:00

Four tips from Google Checkout - a couple of which I learned the hard way prior to finding these out:

- Add shipping and return policies
- Turn off auto-charging unless you ship orders the same day
- Add tracking information when orders are shipped
- Reply to buyer inquiries within one business day

Lessons Learned #2 - Titles and Business Cards

2008-04-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

After equipping a business with professional contact addresses, one of the next steps to promoting yourself and your business is by creating a business card. The 3 main components to consider for your business card (beyond your permanent info like your name etc.) are:

- Your Title
- Adding a slogan or description for your company
- The design

Your Title
Selecting your title is a very important aspect of how your business will be perceived. I think the natural tendency here is for sole proprietors to give themselves as important a title as possible, such as "President" or "CEO". However, do consider who will be receiving your business card and what the possibility of them perceiving your business to be a very small operation. In some instances, it may be best to simply be a "Director" or "VP of ...." (insert sales, etc.) In fact, for my latest batch of business cards, I have forgone the title completely, giving me the flexibility to inject my role into conversations ("I run the productions.." or "head of sales..." etc.) Think about who will receive the majority of your business cards and what impression you want to convey.

Adding a Slogan or Description to Your Business Card
This is very important especially if you see yourself handing out a lot of business cards at events or places where you do not have more than a few minutes to make contact with people. Unless you have had a long conversation with somebody about what it is that you do that differentiates yourself from others, then chances are they will need a little help remembering your business when they look at your business card hours, days or weeks from when you first met. Having a slogan that describes your business and why it is great (20 words/one sentence max!) will remind them of you and is the intermediate step that will lead them to visiting your website or calling.

The Card Design
In my opinion, the two ways to go about developing your design is either to select a traditional business card design or inject a contemporary design that demonstrates what it is you do. The latter, when executed well, will definitely leave an impression and will allow you to forgo a slogan. However, I have rarely seen a business card that graphically demonstrates the business and you run the risk of producing something hokey and cheesy. The safer choice is to produce a professional business card that incorporates your brand/logo and includes a slogan. When you give your business card out, you can convey your dedication, determination and drive through your demeanor. One excellent company, which I use for my business cards, is iPrint.com.

Lesson Learned #1 - Business Address and Phone

2008-03-18T08:18:00.001-07:00

I've recently finished reading a quality book on setting off on your own, entitled The 4 Hour Work Week, which is based on an interesting angle looking at entrepreneurship - creating enough "automatic" income so that one does not have to work much more than a few hours per week. The author, Tim Ferriss, has apparently lived an interesting (and short - young guy) life and has some good basic ideas on how to achieve more by being more focused and cutting out "the fat" in your worklife. I'm quite skeptical of some of his basic ideas as his own "4 hour work-week" sounds more like the result of good fortune, but he does offer some practical tips on how to sell your boss on working remotely, setting up automatic income tools and time saving tips for mundane tasks (via batching). Well worth a read. But for this post, let me focus on the topic of business contact addresses for startups and home based businesses which The 4 Hour Work Week touches on.

A lot of people will immediately think of just using their existing home address as well as personal cell phone number as the mail contact addresses for their new business. However, this may not be optimal if you foresee the possibility of receiving frequent calls about:

a) your new product
b) your customer service
c) calls from other businesses looking to sell your services.

This is the same for using your home address plus the fact that you may receive unwanted/unexpected visitors who are looking to visit the "store front." (The latter is a point that Tim Ferris points out rightly) Therefore, sometimes it makes sense to obtain a separate mailing address and business phone number.

On separate phone numbers I believe the best way to go is either to obtain a VOIP service like Vonage, or hire the services of a company that specializes in providing business phone receptionist services.

Vonage: is a good service if you plan on making outgoing calls and you have broadband internet service at home. Call forwarding and access to your messages online is very helpful but if you start a very small business, the services may be more than you need - particularly if you don't make a lot of outgoing calls. The monthly service cost may be high relative to your usage.
Evoicereceptionist: is also a good service and provides custom greetings as well as connections to custom extensions - pricing here is about $30 per month
Angel: is a more robust service and is one that is used by many medium to large sized companies. There services tend to cater to larger enterprises and may not be the most cost effective.
Onebox: Very simple to use, and low cost ($13 per month) with custom greeting, fax option and emailed messages.

From these choices and from the research I put in to look around, I felt that Onebox was the service that best fit my operations as it had what I wanted (custom greeting, autoforwarding to email, fax) and for a great price ($12.95 per month - includes Toll Free number).

As for a business mailing address, the options are to go with a USPS post office box, or use the services of an independent company. For my purposes, the fastest option was to set up a USPS box and alter the address in business correspondence to customers so that instead of the address appearing as "PO Box 212, Chicago, IL 44411", the address would incorporate the Post Office's address (say for example it as 12 Main St): "12 Main St., Unit #212, Chicago, IL 44411". This has worked great for us. Just note to obtain a business post office address, you need to identification proving you own or are authorized by the business.

Post #1 - The Start of 1ManOp

2008-03-16T16:29:00.001-07:00

Welcome to 1ManOp.com and what I am hoping to be a long and detailed chronicle of all aspects of setting up my one man business operation. Actually the business has been running since early 2007, but as activities have progressed and become more complicated, I have felt a deficiency in both advice/information and organization. This blog is intended to help both my operations as well as provide 'examples' to other people out there who are facing the same issues and challenges in their own business endeavors. On this latter point, one of the reasons I felt that sharing this experience in a blog format would be beneficial is because there are a lot of website out there that purport their thoughts on business issues, but with little or no specific reference to personal examples. I hope 1manop.com is able to give a little more than those resources, by discussing business issues AND explaining the what and the how in reference to my experience. So welcome to 1manop.com and please share your questions and comments!