Category Archives: SOHO

entries related to business from a Small Office/Home Office perspective.

Favorite Free (or Low-Cost) Programs/Software for Business

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Running a business is complicated – and expensive. So it’s nice to know that sometimes you can get ‘big bucks’ quality for a low price – or even free. Here’s a list of programs I use day in, day out – and you might want to check out as well:

Ad Manager – phpAdsNew is a great Open Source (and free) program for managing advertising. Rather than the simple rotator scripts you see around, this is a professional quality program for setting up customer ad campaigns, allowing them to log in and view results. I use it to display banners on all my sites.

Internet Protection – If you’re on the Internet, I recommend a firewall (like a LinkSys Cable Router box) to protect from outsiders trying to get in. However, that won’t stop programs running on your computer from ‘reaching out’. A free program like ZoneAlarm allows you to choose what goes out – and when.

AutoResponder – Email Go-Getter System (EGGS!) is a nice autoresponder script. It’s low cost (donation-ware) but a great way to get a high-quality mail tool on your site. I use it for all my sign-up forms.

Blog software – WordPress is my preferred blog tool of choice – popular, actively supported, customizable, and easy to use. If you’re looking to put a blog on a website or two, it’s a great choice.

Office Software (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, etc) – I have Microsoft Office, but I don’t use it. OpenOffice does what I want, and it’s compatible with MS Office (one exception I’ve found – spreadsheet passwords). I recommend it as a great way to learn Office tools, while keeping costs low.

This just scratches the surface of the tools out there, but quality software like this will help out a lot – letting you provide ‘Big Biz’ results – on a ‘Small Biz’ budget!

Setting up an Online Store for Free

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For the past year, I’ve cobbled together a custom PHP script for my sales sites. After all, my needs were simple – very few items, PayPal payments only, so why invest the time and effort in a complete store, right?

Wrong.

I finally took the plunge this week where developing a new site, and decided to go for a ‘standard’ store. And to set that store up, I used open-source software – specifically, osCommerce.

osCommerce is a free store script in PHP that you customize for different looks (or leave unchanged for a nice blue look). Ideally, you want a style uniquely your own, which is where osCommerce templates come in.

A template is just the design tips needed to create a look for the basic osCommerce layout. And looks matter, so even if osCommerce is free, think seriously about paying for an osCommerce template – the price is well worth it in terms of a professional look.

I’ll try to get noting my experiences with osCommerce, but so far it’s been quite positive. Well, maybe one negative – a lot of the code is split up over files, so tracking down what’s happening can be time-consuming. But I can heartily recommend osCommerce, and once you’re past the initial learning curve, it’s a slick way to open your store cheaply.

Looking for a Home Business?

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’94 Best Small Business Opportunities’ is the title of this short article on about.com – you might find it worth a quick check if you’re wondering what would make an interesting career, or even a side job.

Although some of them are obvious (eBay), and some are a bit unrealistic (organize people’s space, or open a spa), the list is a fine way to get you thinking – and your own brainstorming might lead to a really good idea.

My favorite – online gaming:

The competition is intense for online gaming developers, but business opportunities exist ‘to serve the companies that are developing all these games.’

So develop online games myself, or serve coffee to developers? Tough decision…

Thinking of a Discount?

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We often think of discounts as a way to jump start sales. After all, who doesn’t like a bargain?

But one thing we might fail to ask – how much is that discount REALLY costing me?

Let’s explain with a little (very little) math. My Gizmos and Gee-Gaws both sell for $5 – it costs me $1 to make each Gizmo, but $3 for each Gee-Gaw.

So to sell a few more, I take 20% off the price of each. This is what the customer sees – a good deal, and so I sell a few more.

But what do I see? My Gizmo PROFIT has gone from $4 each to $3 – which means I’ve lost 25% of my profit, not 20%.

And my Gee-Gaws are even worse -I’m only making $2 profit on them before, so I’m down to $1 – and I’ve lost 50% of my profit!

Look at it another way – how many more will I need to sell to make the same profit? If I’m making 3/4 of the profit I used to on my Gizmos, then I need to sell 4/3 (or 133%) as many to make the same profit.

But for the Gee-Gaws – it’s horrible – I’ve lost 1/2 the profit, so I’ll have to sell 2/1 (200%) to make the same profit – twice as many!

If the math makes your head hurt, then just take a few principles away from this:

  • Always do the math based on your profit, not your selling price.
  • Discounts always cost you more than the customer benefits.
  • Even when your profit margin is high, discounts can make earning that much harder.

So give discounts a try, but remember the math – and make sure your discounts count!

The Customers From Heck!

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I just read a blog today where the marketer complained about a problem he had – of a service he offered, several people recently signed up, and then signed out in only 10 minutes.

He’s understandably upset – who wants to lose customers?

But the problem is what happens afterwards – he blames them.

Now bad customers are part of business, and it is possible that he got 3 or 4 bad apples in a row (this time of year, there are quite a few frustrated people). But to automatically jump to that ignores an important fact:

Where there’s smoke, there’s a fire.

I sell software for a living, and I’ve had my share of customers complain about products, service, etc. But one thing happens time and again – if I get a complaint about a problem, I’ll usually get two. Then three. And sure enough, there’s a real problem.

One of my programs, Rocket Retriever, had a bug. I couldn’t reproduce it, but a few customers were sure it was there. In the end, it was an obscure timing issue that took less than 10 minutes to fix…

…and I’m VERY grateful to the customers who complained about it.

So take the gripes, calm the people down, and ask yourself – is there really a problem?

In the case of this blogger, he’s solving the problem by offering a free teleseminar on his product – a clear sign that he’s listening to the complaints.

And I’m positive he’ll find the level of quitters drops like a rock!