Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

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Learn to type as you talk at my Talk and Type Software page

Hi Victor :-)
I took a look at your site, and in one sense, yes...you make it very clear what it is you`re offering. The site was quick and easy, made sense, but wasn`t something I`m interested in using. Why?

I`m in a 2-person business. We have no employees, so we don`t need time and attendance software at all. We sell 1 main product, with some secondary products, so we don`t need much inventory control.

As for finance, if we wanted to get into it more seriously, we`d just use Quickbooks, since that seems to be an accounting standard.

On the other hand, I didn`t see any sort of tracking software for orders, ship deadlines, order details, and so forth, designed for customization, ease-of-use, and simplicity. We don`t want to spend $175 for something like that, when we can just as soon use Excel---a lousy solution. (We use Lotus Approach, $30.)

From what I`m seeing, there`s a complete disconnect between the growing Cottage Industry, and Everyone Else who`s outside that industry and wants to capitalize on the action. The disconnect, I think, arises from a misunderstanding of "small business" versus "bootstrapping microbusiness."

What about organizational software? If you`ve read through many posts here, you saw that a massive problem for small (micro) business owners is having a way to stay organized in any fashion at all. Not with meetings! With the daily details of scheduling, handling daycare, doing errands, and running the business.

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Learn to type as you talk at my Talk and Type Software page

A "small business," from the little I understand of some kind of definition, seems to have either or both of two basic criteria:

1. It has fewer than 50 employees (re: OSHA regulations),
2. Generates revenues of $1-10 million per year.

I`m not a degreed MBA or business person, and don`t pay that much attention to formal business defintions. So the above is my personal interpretation of what "seems to be meant" by the term small business.

But I do know that a bootstrapping microbusiness has little to do with those two above criteria. How long it`ll take to reach either of those goals, that`s anybody`s guess. But there are lots of businesses that are already there.

So it comes down to your target market. :-)