Small Business Online Accounting

Since Opuscule’s inception I’ve been diligently recording our income & expenses on QuickBooks. And if you’re a small business owner, chances are you’ve been through this as well. While QuickBooks is an amazing program, and the go-to tool for accountants and CPA’s, the process of entering in your business transactions is cumbersome, and confusing for many.

Then, earlier this year, I began using Mint.com. Friends of mine were already using Mint.com, and had been for a few years before I decided to start tracking my personal finances. This has been an amazing decision and I would highly recommend it. And it’s FREE.

One key feature of Mint.com is that it syncs with your banks and credit cards over a super secure connection to import your transactions. Then you categorize your transactions and review reporting amongst many other features. It seems so simple, and intuitive, that there must be a version of this for businesses, right? That started a 5 week search for the perfect fit. I was eager to begin online accounting for my small business.

InDinero

My first test began with InDinero. I had a lot of hope that this would do the trick, but after playing around on their interface, it was obvious they were lacking a few key ingredients, including areas for assets and liabilities. Additionally, they had a steep pricing structure for bonus features like the privilege of reviewing your balance sheet and profit & loss statements. If you’re looking to track expenses and income this is a great start with a well designed user interface. And they’re friendly & responsive to boot!

LessAccounting

Following a few links on other blogs I ran across LessAccounting. I signed up for a free trial and got to work. Spending hours categorizing my transactions, I was pleased, but wished it was easier to assign my transactions to particular clients like QuickBooks. And their costly $30.00 per month price tag wasn’t helping sell the experience either. Especially since I’d have to keep my $19.00 per month FreshBooks account.

Kashoo

Then I stumbled onto Kashoo. This online accounting software tool is great, actually, but I knew there had to be something better. They have a free plan, but that doesn’t include automatically syncing your bank accounts. You’ll have to pony up $9.99 per month for those amenities. And I would have done it if it weren’t for their cumbersome user interface. The difficulty of splitting transactions finally proved too much for me and I resumed my search.

Wave Accounting

I finally landed on Wave Accounting and am confident I’ll be able to stay here for a long time. Their FREE online accounting software is intuitive and complete. A thorough review has been written by The Small Biz Doer and his notes are right on. Syncing with my bank accounts is seamless and allows for all the bells and whistles to help track Opuscule’s finances. I’m looking forward to reconciling through the beginning of 2012 and beyond!

Small Business Internet Consultants

At Opuscule we don’t just build websites, but help small businesses find the best tools for their needs and budgets. We’ve advised hundreds of companies on everything digital from point-of-sale registers to email newsletters. If you’re looking for some assistance getting your business online and finding the best digital solutions, contact our crack web team. We’re here to help!

Have you Heard of Square?

The world is learning to rely less and less on physical cash and more on digital money. Problem is, digitally transferring funds from one place to another can cost a fortune and often requires extensive equipment. Then Square came along and challenged those ideas completely.

If you sign up for Square, they mail you a small tool that will plug into the headphone port of your iPhone, iPad, Android or other smart phone/tablet. With an internet connection, you’re now ready to accept credit cards. Slide your customer’s credit card through the tool, have them sign your phone/tablet with their finger, and you’ve got money in your account. And it’s cheaper than any of the competition!

Many of Opuscule’s clients accept payment via credit card and most of them are using the traditional setup. This usually includes a processing machine, which they either bought for $400 or are renting for $65/month. Then they need a payment gateway like authorize.net, which will charge them $30/month for the service. Add to that a per transaction fee of 3.2% plus $0.27. I told you, a fortune!

Square charges 2.75% per transaction. That’s it. There’s no monthly fee, no equipment fee (they send the tool for FREE), no contracts, no monthly minimum or maximum – that’s it. Sound’s good? You’re right, and they’re making converts across the globe thousands at a time.

Processing credit cards is now safe, affordable and convenient with Square.

And if that wasn’t enough, they recently launched an app for iPad that replaces all point-of-sale systems. My client received a quote of $4,500 for a POS in his restaurant. That’s ridiculous! For $499.00 he can purchase an iPad, setup the Square Register app and incorporate the Square credit card reader at a lower cost than processing credit card the traditional way. He still has control of the items, user accounts, discounts, and can review sales figures and reports from any web connected device!

And don’t think the world of credit card processing hasn’t noticed. PayPal has jumped on the band wagon and will soon be offering a triangular tool that does the same job for 2.7%. We can already take pictures of checks with our phones and have them deposited into our accounts. I’m looking forward to the future of digital money.

New York Small Business Internet Consultants

You should know that Opuscule isn’t just about building websites. We’ve helped hundreds of businesses get online and utilize the latest and greatest tools to make their lives easier and their wallets fatter. If you or someone you know has questions about making their lives easier and better with the power of the web, contact our internet consultation specialists. We are here to help…

 

Congrats to On the Ledge Landscaping

Congratulations to Opuscule’s client On the Ledge Landscaping in Chicago for their recent voting as “Best in Chicago” amongst window box designers! It’s a major accomplishment to be nominated and an honor to win. Chicago Magazine reports:

In a world teeming with top-ten lists, self-proclaimed winners, and Yelp battles, we still believe in going out on the farthest limb and picking the best. We scoured the town and crossed all the references to bring you this year’s chart toppers.

Joanne Green contacted Opuscule to tell us the news weeks ago and gave credit to a well designed website. We appreciate the kind words and are always glad to find deserving small businesses recognized.

Small Business Web Design

The web development and social networking experts at Opuscule Productions help small business get online fast. We can work around your budget and have been doing so since 2006. If you are in the market for a new site or website redesign, we can help.

On the Ledge Landscaping Best of Chicago

Update Your Website

Above – Smile Artistry

Sadly, too many companies do not consider one small element of their website that reads as a major giveaway to how they are keeping up: the copyright date.

On the bottom of nearly every website there is a copyright date/year. Opuscule.com reads 2011, representing we are current, up to date and still in business – right? So why would so many small businesses not care for this important feature?

First, it is important to know that with or without a copyright notice, your material is protected. It doesn’t take a notice of copyright to call claim to your website and all its contents.

But more importantly, this date speaks subtle hints about how you run your business, and even more importantly, if your business is still in existence.

Take for example Pivot in Chicago - their website could definitely use an update. Their website has a copyright date of 2009. It also has an ecommerce page to allow me to shop online from them. When considering an online purchase, I would be reluctant to give them my financial information in fear they went out of business in 2009 – the last time they updated their copyright date. How much trust would you have in their online shop?

Additionally, even if your website looks contemporary like Advanced Dentistry in Seattle, having a copyright date two years old shows how out of date the site actually is.

A website that seems to excel in design, but lacks in technical ability is b.rose salon and spa. Their website has a copyright date of 2007. It also lists very important business items that now seem outdated. For example, are their prices still the same? How about their phone number, hours, address, services?

What small businesses don’t know, and apparently several web designers too, is that there is a way to have the current date automatically display with a simple line of PHP coding. So, even if you don’t update your website on January 1st, 2012, it will automatically display that year when the clock strikes.

Brooklyn Small Business Web Design

As more people trade phone book and traditional print advertising for the web, it’s obvious that your website needs to be top-notch, a representation of your small business. We have created hundreds of affordable, professional sites for entrepreneurs who can boast increased sales and visibility. We are experienced search engine optimization experts and work within your budget to create a great looking site that represents you! Contact us to learn more about how we can help.

Should Your Website Have a Privacy Policy?

YES!

Only a small percentage of visitors to your website will even notice you have a privacy policy, but it only takes one simple legal instance and you will be glad you have one.

If you are conducting eCommerce on your website, not only is it critical, in most cases it is absolutely necessary in order for your payment gateway to release your sales revenue into your account.

Most clients of Opuscule, though, only have simple “Contact Us” forms on their sites. And for a few of your visitors, it is ver important to them what you do with the information they put into that form. Are you creating a huge list of completed form entries and selling them to other websites for SPAM purposes? That would be something I’d like to know…

What Goes Into a Privacy Policy?

  1. There is a good chance that you are using a visitor tracking program like the ever popular Google Analytics on your website. In these cases, you will need to disclose that a cookie is placed on your visitor’s computer for the purpose of tracking their behavior on your site. This is a very common practice, and should not surprise anyone. You can review the privacy policy of Google Analytics if you would like more information about what sorts of data is collected and how it is stored.
  2. If you are collecting a person’s information through a form, than you will want to make it clear what is happening with that information. If you have a form where people can subscribe to your email newsletter, or the form they fill out to get in contact with you, they need to know what’s happening with their information. This is especially critical if you are conducting any online sales where people enter their credit card information. This also includes how you are protecting that information.
  3. Certain states across the US have specific items that will need to be placed in your website’s privacy policy as well as federal laws.
  4. You should have something about when this version of your privacy policy was created; that you have the right to change it at any time; and how you notify visitors when a change happens to your privacy policy. Usually a message like, “If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page. This policy was last modified on 04/27/2011″
  5. When you link your website to other sites, like in this post for example, you should explain that you are not responsible for the content of those websites. This is commonly called “Third Party Links.”
  6. Your contact information should be somewhere on the privacy policy in instances where people can write or call you directly regarding the content of your privacy policy.
  7. A phrase explaining that by using your website, the visitor agrees to the privacy policy.

How Do I Create a Great Privacy Policy?

Of course, the best privacy policies are written by skilled attorneys, but it may not be necessary to spend $200/hour to have a simple document drafted for your website. In most cases, Opuscule’s clients are comfortable using the Free Privacy Policy Generator. Of course it is full of flashy advertisements and invitations to get you to spend money, but in the end the service is still free.

A few of Opuscule’s clients spend some time researching other website’s privacy policy pages and using that information to draft their own, and even some will seek out advice blog postings like this one. And like it was mentioned there, your privacy policy should be easy to read and understand. Too much legal jargon will confuse

Please note that we are not lawyers, nor are we qualified to give legal advice, but the information here is meant to be considered by website owners.

Affordable Small Business Websites

The awesome web developers of Opuscule help small business clients create not only excellent and legally sound privacy policies, but also professional looking websites on a budget by using the latest technology. All of our clients also have the ability to access the administrator side of their websites and add/change/delete pages and blog postings at their leisure. Our services include a one-on-one tutorial of how to use the content management system and help getting through the tricky parts. Contact us today to learn more. We can get you online today.

Image credit

 

Good Looking Government Websites!

A person I follow on Tumblr posted a link to the updated FCC.gov website recently and we wanted to echo his sentiment, “Huge redesign. I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see more government websites look like they were designed within the current decade.”

It brings up a good point. I remember the last presidential campaign and how refreshing it was to see Barack Obama’s website and how modern it looked. People were eager to commend him for being able to grasp the power that is the web.

Fortunately, that trend followed after him taking office, trickling down to many government agencies including the updated and redesigned US Department of State, Department of the Treasury, Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice!

Some sites we wish they would update are the Food & Drug Administration and the Department of Labor which may be newer code but isn’t necessarily a very aesthetic design.

Having a contemporary looking website for your small business is very beneficial for many reasons. Visitors to outdated sites are shown not to trust them as much, experience difficulty with navigating through pages, and older sites are harder to update.

Contact our experienced New York web designers to get your small business online with a professional and contemporary design. We can help, whatever your budget.

A New Cell Phone Number

Many of my family, clients, friends and creditors have become accustomed to calling me on my cell phone. And as you know, I gracefully welcome this kind of interaction as often as I can!

That said, it has become critical over the last few days to change my phone number, and in the process, settling into a more local area code. You can now reach me directly at:

(###) ###-####

This takes the place of the old number, (773) 617-3551 – please make a note of it. I’m terribly sorry if this too much an inconvenience…

That said, you can always contact me at the offices of Opuscule Productions, Inc. at (347) 766-6787 Continue reading

Opuscule on Thumbtack

A few months ago we stumbled upon the website thumbtack.com – and our minds were blown. It’s an impressive directory that’s easy to search and easy to add your business to. There are ways to up your status and listing by verifying various parts and so on and so forth. Check it out…

Well, you wouldn’t believe it, but Opuscule has been nominated for a Thumbtack Elite Service Award and were asked to provide some information about our business.

We’re happy to present this generous Thumbtack Spotlight.

Tips for SEO

We’ve given the speech at least 80 times and thought it might help other small business owners as well. When it comes to being on page one of Google, you’ve got some work to do…

As we say “Google” we actually mean all search engines inclusively; but Google is the most popular.

Most importantly, Google is a business. Their job is to provide the user with the best search results. If your website hasn’t been updated in 18 months, and your copyright date reads 2009, there isn’t too much of an incentive to put you on page one of Google, right?

Many of Opuscule’s clients update their websites daily or at least weekly. Your competition who IS appearing on page one of Google is spending more time and money than you are, we can almost guarantee that. This isn’t a game of luck.

1. Work on Inbound Links

It may be that “Content is King” and engaging social networks is key, but valuable inbound links are your trump card. We could safely estimate that at least 50% of your placement on Google are your inbound links. The best links are coming from other independent websites in similar fields, including those from domains ending in .edu and .gov and .org. Additionally, if you write a compelling blog post or article that other people can share and link to, that is also great. The least desirable, though still beneficial, are simple link swaps or exchanges.

2. Look After Your Website’s Code

Each page’s title, description and keywords should be in place and optimized, and the coding and syntax should be up to the most recent web standards. Your images should be named appropriately with have titles and alt text. Are your h1 & h2 header tags set?

3. Keep Content Fresh by Updating it Regularly

Some clients say, “but I run an accounting firm, what can I update my website with?” How about some blog posting ideas, you can write about:

  • New legislation (federal and local) that effect your industry
  • Updates at your firm (new hire, address change)
  • Search for and comment on news happening in your industry – news.google.com
  • Challenge cases your firm has had and how it overcame (winning verdicts for lawyers)
  • New clients or customers you’ve contracted
  • Write about other local businesses, maybe how they help your business
  • Some of your competitors and what they are doing. Can you do it better?
  • What is happening in educational institutions for your industry?
  • Ratings or testimonials you’ve gotten.
  • Still having trouble? What are other people blogging about? – blogsearch.google.com

4. Review Your Site’s Visitor Statistics

For each of Opuscule’s clients we incorporate Google’s free Analytics tool. Learning about the data tracked on this incredible tool, how to access it, and what to glean from it is a whole hour long tutorial in itself. One quick seGoogle Analytics SEOt of data we could review is the “average pages per visit” versus your most visited pages. For example, if your average number of pages per visit is 3, but your phone number and address appear only on the 6th most popular page, it would benefit you to put that information on each page. We are huge advocates of drop down menus.

5. Your Website is just a Really Nice Business Card

Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that people will come to it. You must get the word out. Are you still using your ‘aol.com’ email address? Why? Speaking of emails, you could benefit from including a signature on yours with your name, title, phone number and website! Postcards, letterhead, business cards, and more can help you get the word out.

6. Where Else Can We Find Your Website?

It’s very important to add your website to other directories. Are you on Google Places? What about Yelp? More people use these services than you imagine, and since Google reformatted their search results pages to highlight maps you should work on your profile there.

7. Submit Your Sitemap

XML sitemaps are used by the search engines in order to index through your site. This list of ALL pages / posts / etc. of your site also includes information such as the date the page was last modified, as well as a priority number of what you feel the most important pages of your sites are. All elements that help the search engines properly find and link to all content of your site. There are special areas on Google, Yahoo! and Bing where you can submit these.

8. Leverage & Monitor Social Networks & Communities

StumbleUpon for SEOWhy not setup a Twitter account for your business? Start tweeting, follow related Twitter users and engage the service. Put up links to your website! Have you started a Facebook Page? Why not start an account on StumbleUpon? Digg? Flickr? There are over a dozen more and Opuscule can help.

There are plenty more creative, costly, and time consuming things you can do, but this is a great start.

New York Search Engine Optimization Experts

There is a lot of information here, and if any of it is unclear the SEO specialists at Opuscule are here to help. We work with clients in a wide range of industries. If you would like to see your website higher up on Google’s ranks, contact us for a specialized plan. We can help your small business.

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