Here’s How Testimonials Help Boost Your Sales
Customer behavior is one of the many things in business that are always changing. Especially in today’s digital world, which presents a wide range of new opportunities every year, the way your customers shop is bound to be different from one year to the next.
Today, there’s nothing more important than testimonials from past customers. Positive ones help attract new customers and build a sense of customer loyalty, while negative ones are known to drive those customers away.
That’s why it’s important to collect, respond to, nurture, and monitor your customer reviews and testimonials regularly to ensure you’re meeting your customer’s needs.
Don’t worry, we understand this is something most business owners aren’t keen on. We’re going to run through everything you need to know about testimonials -- including how to use them, how to get them, how to display them, and how to find success with them.
Are Testimonials Worth the Hassle?
Customers today are extremely interested in the experiences other customers had when interacting with your business. In fact, 90% of consumers say online reviews from other customers help influence their decisions when shopping.
The thing about testimonials is it gives the customer a sense of confidence before purchasing an item or signing up for a service. They have a better idea of what to expect, which is important because a lot of businesses go out of their way to make their product seem better than it really is.
Testimonials help build trust with customers before they commit to your product, which heavily increases conversions and sales. These conversions become even more beneficial to your business when the testimonial is coming from someone famous, well-known, or popular in your industry.
As long as the testimonial is authentic, customers are going to appreciate it and utilize it every time -- and this is proven. One study by Econsultancy discovered that testimonials increase the likelihood of a purchase by more than 60% and even increase sales by nearly 20%.
Another study by Reevoo proved that having 50+ testimonials can increase nearly 5% of your sales and a study by Brightlocal found that 88% of people trust online reviews as much as reviews from friends and family.
The numbers don’t lie -- testimonials work and are necessary for any business.
Receiving Testimonials From Customers
One of the best ways to get testimonials from your customers is by asking them -- after all, that’s the key to getting most things in business. If you need numbers to prove this, the same study by Brightlocal we mentioned earlier also found that 68% of customers leave a testimonial when asked.
Since there are so many ways to initiate this, we’re going to detail some of the most popular and effective ways:
1. Utilizing Surveys
Customer surveys are such an easy way to get a feel for how your business is perceived by others. It’s your chance to group together a wide range of questions that require a yes/no answer or a rating.
You can ask questions that describe their use of the product or service, questions about their demographic, questions about their satisfaction, and even questions that require a typed-out answer. Some popular questions to include are:
- How often did you use the product or service?
- What did you like most about the product or service?
- What is your age, gender, employment status, and marital status?
- How satisfied are you with this product on a scale of 1-10?
- If you could change anything about the product or service, what would you change?
- Will you be using this product or service again in the future?
A survey is versatile and can be used to gain valuable insight and data about your customers, while also giving you valuable content to showcase online -- that way other customers can read their answers.
2. Automating Emails
Emails are a great way to ask for testimonials. They can be used to send out the survey, but they can also be used to simply ask for a written testimonial about their experience with your product or service.
With the way technology is built in your favor, you can even automate these emails to be sent to the customer a week after receiving the product or service. This not only gives them a chance to try the product first, but it gives them a reminder to tell you what they thought of it.
Of course, you’ll want to make it worth their while by offering some type of incentive for completing the survey or writing the testimonial. It can even be something as simple as a one-time drawing where there’s only one winner -- don’t be afraid to get creative!
3. Integrate Apps
There are also a wide range of apps out there designed to help you collect and display testimonials or reviews. For example, you can use Yotpo, Stamped.io, Loox, or Shopify’s own Product Review app to integrate testimonials directly on your Shopify site.
You can also use apps like Yelp and Google to ask customers for reviews. It’s simple to do and there are already a wide range of people doing it -- sometimes they just need that extra push!
Should You Ask Anyone for a Testimonial?
To be fair, you should always leave the door open for anyone to leave a review or testimonial for your business. Even the negative ones give you an opportunity to grow and become better.
At the same time, you also want to make sure you have as many positive reviews as possible. That’s why you have to know where to go for that positive review and more important, how to get it!
First, you’re going to want to locate your most loyal customers. These are the customers you see frequently, the customers who spend the most money, and the customers that have been with you the longest. You can label them your MVS -- Most Valuable Shoppers.
Once you’ve asked them for a testimonial, you can start to venture out to other areas. Social media is a great place to start because a majority of your customers are already on there. You can easily search hashtags and even look at your own messages or replies.
Stay on the lookout for social media followers that have already posted something positive about your product. Repost their shoutout and respond to them!
Reach out to them and thank them for using your product. That’s when you can kindly slip in, “Would you mind leaving us a testimonial of your experience with us so far?”
Lastly, you can use what’s called a Net Promoter Score survey. This is where you send out an initial survey that asks, “Would you recommend this product or service to someone you know?” Those that answer positively should be reached out to for a follow-up survey or reached out to for a testimonial.
What Should Testimonials Contain?
While it’s important to know how to ask and who to ask for a testimonial, you also have to know what to ask. As much as you want hundreds of reviews and testimonials, you don’t necessarily want them to to all be, “Great product!” or “Love it!”
The truth is, those don’t provide other customers with any valuable information and often come across as spam or fake.
The key when avoiding this is to search for customers willing to give specific, clear, and detailed reviews of your product or service. This doesn’t need to be hundreds of words, but it should be more than the generic reviews you’re used to getting.
In order to encourage more specific and detailed reviews from your customers, consider the following:
- Ask for photos or videos from the customer to provide further supporting material for other customers.
- Be honest and be specific with them as far as what you’re looking for in your testimonial.
- Give them examples of other reviews that you thought resembled what you wanted in a testimonial.
- If there are any key words you want the customer to mention in their testimonial, try using them in your own verbage to inspire the customer.
- Send them a history of products they bought or services they utilized.
At the end of the day, you want to make sure the customer knows you want descriptive testimonials. If you have to, don’t be afraid to tell them you’ll display their testimonial on your website if they write a glowing review.
You Have the Testimonial, Now What?
There are so many different places you can display your testimonials for others to see. Making sure you display them in the right places is essential to making sure they produce the results you were hoping for when you collected them.
Here are some of the most popular and effective places to showcase them:
- Social Media - a simple retweet of a customer’s testimonial or positive review can go a long way because all your followers will see it. You can also shout out customers yourself on social media, they’ll appreciate the 15 minutes of fame.
- Testimonial Page - having a page on your website dedicated to displaying testimonials is a great way to hold all your testimonials in one place.
- Product/Service Page - if you have testimonials about certain products or services, displaying them on their corresponding product or service page can help drive conversions.
- Case Studies - when you build a case study, you should always include testimonials from clients in that industry.
Once you can figure out where to display them and how to get other customers to read them, you’ll start to see the testimonials take effect on your business. Soon enough, you’ll see your sales start to increase and you’ll even start to see more testimonials come in!
Need Extra Help With Testimonials?
Asking, collecting, monitoring, managing, nurturing, and showcasing testimonials to potential customers is extremely beneficial to the future of your business. At the same time, it’s extremely time-consuming and something not every business owner has the time to do.
You might be wondering if it’s worth it to outsource this process to a professional. Like anything else, it comes with its own set of pros and cons. The pros, for instance, include having someone with experience lead the way, freeing up your time to focus on what’s most important, and increasing the amount of testimonials you receive on a monthly basis.
On the other hand, the cons include having to do it yourself, risking not having enough time to do it properly or effectively, and a loss of quality.
Whether you want to find a professional, search for a software program to help, or do it all yourself, the important thing is that you’re doing it. Eventually, you’ll start to see results and learn that it was all worth it.
If you need help, contact Consultants In-A-Box today. We can’t wait to assist you with the growth of your business and help you get more quality reviews.
Top Ways to Build Customer Loyalty
There are so many different ways to build customer loyalty in your business, but it generally boils down to whether or not your customer has a positive experience when interacting with your business. Once you can build that loyalty, you’ll have customers that are willing to go out of their way for your business.
The best part is they’ll show this support and love in a variety of ways. Whether it be through glowing reviews on social media, wonderful recommendations to friends and family, or even through continuing to purchase your product/service, your customers will stand by you.
Without these customers, your business, brand, or idea will struggle to gain steam and grow into the powerhouse you imagined it could be. That’s why we like to call these customers your “VIP customers” or “brand champions,” but you can call them whatever you’d like.
Why Do We Need Loyal Customers?
One of the things we’ve heard many business owners ask is, “Why should I care how loyal they are? I already made money off them.” First off, it’s not all about making money off of them. Like we mentioned above, you also have to provide a positive experience.
Secondly, it’s not just one loyal customer you’re dealing with. With the way customers shop today, one loyal customer turns into another loyal customer -- which eventually grows into a loyal customer base that keeps your business running and growing.
Lastly, you can’t have customers that think bad about your business. Again, this isn’t just one customer because that customer will multiply. Eventually, you’ll have a lot of customers that are avoiding your business due to warnings from other customers.
In a recent study by Jay Baer, he concluded that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family, while 70% trust reviews from anonymous consumers online. This high-trust rate means you need to rethink your strategy when interacting with customers.
That’s why it’s important to treat every customer your best, that way you’re constantly building and nurturing a culture of loyal customers.
So, How Do You Build Customer Loyalty?
Most business owners expect loyal customers to come as a result from being open for a long time or just through luck alone. Instead, loyal customers come as a result of hard work, dedication, commitment, and genuine gratitude toward the customer.
If you’ve been trying to build a loyal customer base, but haven’t had the luck you were hoping for, we’ve got several tips that will help you on your way:
1. Ask Your Customers
Never be afraid to reach out to your customers or clients and ask them for feedback about how they were treated, how their experience was, and what your business could’ve done better to provide a more memorable experience.
This can be done through surveys or by having a specified place on your website to accept suggestions/feedback. You can also make use of those emails you’ve been collecting and start a campaign. If customers truly want to see change in your company, they’ll let you know.
Ignite that change, and you’ll start to gain trust!
2. Respond to Reviews
While customers like to read the reviews of other customers before purchasing a product or signing up for a service, they also like to know how the business responded to that review -- if they responded to it. That’s why it’s important to always monitor your reputation online and respond to customers in a timely manner.
The key is to always stay positive when responding, always apologize, and always present a solution to the issue. This will show them that you’re here for them, not for yourself.
3. Incentivize Referrals
If you were wondering why you aren’t getting that many referrals, it might be because your customers aren’t being pushed to doing so. Sometimes, that’s all they need -- a little incentive to make it that much more worth it for them.
Get creative with this, but it doesn’t have to be anything crazy. Give them each a discount on their next purchase, or a free meal the next time they come in. Something that won’t cost you that much on the back-end, but something that they’ll appreciate nonetheless.
4. Loyalty Programs Work
In addition to incentivizing referrals, introducing a loyalty program can help increase your ability to build trust with customers. Offer a free meal after the purchase of five or a free item after spending a certain amount -- trust us, it works.
Those people that would normally only visit you once will suddenly start visiting you monthly and even weekly. This gives you more time to nurture their experience with your business and keep them interested in doing business with you long-term.
5. Give Back to the Community
Especially in a day and age like this, it’s extremely important to give back to your community and show that you’re more than just a business -- you’re here to help make life better for others in any way possible.
When there’s a local event going on, find a way to participate. If there’s a charity you have respect for, make a donation. You should always be looking for new ways to give back and show your business’ true colors so the rest of the community can see with their own eyes.
6. Customer Service Is Key
Of course, there’s nothing customers like more than being treated well. When you interact with a customer, you have to make them feel special and turn all your attention towards them. If you don’t, they’ll easily take their business elsewhere and talk bad about yours in the process.
Take the time to train your employees correctly and make sure you’re following all the right protocols when interacting with customers. You should also reassess those protocols often to make sure they meet evolving standards.
7. Consistency Helps
Another thing that’s essential to building a loyal customer base is being consistent. You can’t expect to keep a customer engaged with your business if you can’t consistently give them good products or service. They want to rely on you long-term, but only if you can prove it to them.
To solve this, make sure you and your employees are always following the best practices and protocols we discussed in the previous section. You should also ensure your employees know how to handle themselves in a high-pressure situation to avoid any mishaps.
8. Quality Over Everything
Last but not least, focusing on quality never hurts anyone or any business. It’s what the customers want, it’s what they expect, and it’s the only thing you should think about delivering when they need you.
Don’t cut any corners and always find ways to improve your company -- from top to bottom. Every little improvement will benefit the overall experience by the customer, so don’t take anything for granted here.
Don’t Stop There!
Once you start implementing the right strategies, you’ll see loyalty rise with customers. They’ll start engaging with your business more often and be more willing to spend their hard-earned money at your business.
If you want to enhance your connection with customers, social media can be a huge help. Your customers are already on there, they already use it frequently, and they likely already want you on there. Furthermore, it gives you an opportunity to show your business’ true colors and personality.
Ultimately, you have to figure out what your customers want and what they expect out of a company like yours. Once you can figure that out, you’ll know what needs to be done to satisfy them day-in and day-out.
Of course, you can always contact Consultants In-A-Box for more strategies, tips, advice, and assistance when building customer loyalty in your business. We can’t wait to help you find success with your customers and build a lasting relationship with them!
Signs It’s Time For Payroll Help
New business owners are faced with a wide range of difficulties and obstacles when getting their feet on the ground, but most people won’t properly prepare themselves for the payroll process. It might seem easy in the beginning, but you’ll eventually be screaming for payroll help as your business grows.
The more employees you hire, the more difficult it becomes to manage and maintain your daily, weekly, and monthly payroll challenges. It’ll get to a point where you simply don’t have enough time in the day to focus on your responsibility as owner AND manage your company’s payroll.
While most owners find themselves in a pickle when forced to decide between the two, Consultants In-A-Box is here to change that perspective and provide reasonable solutions to your payroll challenges. We’ll become the payroll assistant you’ve always wanted!
When Is It Time for Help?
We assist you with every part of the payroll process -- not just the part where you pay your employees. New hire paperwork, W-2s, quarterly payroll taxes, and much more are required on a consistent basis, taking away even more of your time.
We’ve helped many companies -- just like yours -- solve their payroll issues and we understand the biggest warning signs when it comes to needing payroll help. Let’s take a look at some of those warning signs, that way you can avoid disaster with your own business.
1. Late Payday & Tax Forms
Paying your employees late because you were too busy with other work or didn’t have enough time to process them sooner is unacceptable as a business owner. Your employees depend on receiving their hard-earned money on-time and won’t settle for anything less.
While timing is important with paychecks, it’s also important to the employee’s W2s and 1099s, which need to be sent out in a timely manner so the employee can file their taxes properly. Failing to send them on-time will surely lose your employee’s trust.
2. Payroll Errors
Errors in payroll are never welcomed and put your employee in a tough spot. Spelling their name or address wrong on the check can cause delays when cashing the check. Furthermore, the wrong amount in the check leads to distrust and more delays.
If errors are plentiful when processing payroll, consider finding a payroll assistant or software. They’ll help cut down on the mistakes and ensure everything is handled properly and accurately.
3. Missed Tax Deadlines
Constantly missing tax deadlines can result in some serious fees and charges against your business. These are an important part of owning a business and something most people aren’t aware of before they start a business.
The last thing you need is the IRS on your back. Talking with a professional ensures you know exactly how much to pay, when to pay it, and how to pay it so your business remains in good-standing with the IRS.
4. Depleted Cash Flow
Cash flow is essential when processing payroll. Without the money, you can’t pay your employees. This is the worst case scenario when doing payroll because it brings the entire process to a halt -- even if you’re ready to complete it.
If you’re having issues in this area, payroll software can help you stay better organized and ensure you have the necessary funds when you need them. You won’t need to rely on loans to pay your employees anymore and can start to build a level of financial stability.
5. Hourly Employees
Hourly employees present a wide range of difficulties without the right tools or resources. Especially in today’s digital world, technology is your best friend when taking control of your hourly payroll. If you’re having a tough time accurately keeping track of hourly employees, a payroll software or assistant helps you stay diligent.
At the end of the day, payroll should be an easy process for the owner that requires minimal work and more reviewing than anything. You shouldn’t be running into issues left and right. If you are, it’s time to search for some help -- and there’s no shame in that. It’s a smart move!
Are You Ready to Save Your Payroll?
A quality, smooth, and accurate payroll process is essential to a business. It keeps your financials in order, it keeps you prepared, and leads to more employee loyalty -- which benefits your business in so many more ways.
If you need help keeping everything in check, there are three quality options you can consider immediately -- outsourced professional, payroll software, or both.
The payroll software will make things easier for anyone, whether you’re taking care of the payroll yourself, already have a payroll team, or plan on hiring one. Outsourcing your payroll to a professional might cost money each month, but it’ll add time to your day and accuracy to your books.
Of course, the combination of both is what puts your business in the best position to succeed. Choosing a professional who knows your payroll software is important, but having a professional with their own solution is even better.
When you’re ready to save your payroll and prove to your employees that your company can be a reliable place to work, contact Consultants In-A-Box today to be connected with one of our highly-rated professionals.
Grow Your Sales By Selling Gift Cards Online
In 2020, who would’ve imagined that selling gift cards online would be one of the hottest trends for both brick-and-mortar shops and ecommerce sites? Believe it or not, it’s an excellent way to increase revenue and keep customers engaged with your business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unfortunately, most businesses either don’t know how to sell gift cards online or simply haven’t thought of the idea yet. If this sounds like you, you’re not alone! Many businesses just like yours have struggled to make it happen, but Shopify is making it extremely easy to get started.
Below, we’re going to teach you everything you need to know about using Shopify to sell gift cards online. We’ll discuss how it works, why you should do it, how to get started, and how to enhance the experience for both your company and its customers.
How Does Selling Gift Cards Online Work?
Before the COVID-19 pandemic was an issue, many brick-and-mortar businesses weren’t selling online and had no intention of it. With the COVID-19 pandemic only worsening throughout 2020, many businesses are being forced to either start selling online or close up shop.
No one wants to see our beloved local and small businesses shut down, which is why Shopify has made it so simple to sell gift cards online. This is how it works:
- You create a simple online store with Shopify’s easy build features
- You share your online store with customers so they can add gift cards to their cart
- Customers receive the gift card via email
- You track the purchased gift cards and wait for them to be redeemed in the future
- The gift cards never expire, but you receive the funds immediately
Since many customers might find it difficult to shop your brick-and-mortar store right now, you can easily give them the option of shopping online now to shop in-store later. It’s easy for both you and the customer, which adds to the excitement.
Benefits When You Sell Gift Cards Online
As you might imagine, you open the door to a wide range of possibilities when you sell gift cards online. With so much to gain, you’ll be wondering why you haven’t considered this months ago.
If you’re still on the fence about whether or not your business can benefit from this venture, we completely understand. To help you see the amazing opportunity in front of you, here are some of the ways it can help your business:
- Brand Awareness. Especially during today’s unique times, interacting with your customers is extremely important whether you’re open or closed.
- Increased Sales. Anytime you introduce a revenue stream you weren’t entertaining before, you open the door for more sales each month.
- Useful Data. When observing your customer’s online buying behaviors, you gain useful insight into what they want and how they want it.
- Cash Flow. Customers might not be purchasing products right this moment, but you’re still receiving money now for their business later.
Those are just some of the amazing benefits you receive when adding gift cards to your online store. It’s super easy to do, doesn’t require anything to get started, and gives immediate benefits to both you and the customer!
Getting Started With Shopify Today
If you’re ready to give your shoppers the option to buy online gift cards, you’re making a smart choice. We’ve been talking a lot about how easy it is to get started, but what better way to prove it to you than by explaining it.
You can get started in just five easy steps -- that’s right, just five! Let’s take a look at what’s needed for each step of the process.
1. Start a Free Trial on Shopify
First thing’s first, you need to get started with a Shopify account. It costs $29/month, but they’re giving businesses a free two-week trial before being charged anything. This gives you enough time to establish yourself before having any costs.
When you set up your account, you’ll need to select your domain name. It’s where shoppers will go when looking for your online store. By default, it will look like ‘yoursite.myshopify.com’ unless you purchase a domain, but it’s not necessary. (‘yoursite’ would be replaced with the site name you choose).
It’s important to note that you will need to enter credit card details and select a plan in order to get started, but you won’t be billed until after the free trial. You’ll also receive an email before the trial ends as a reminder.
2. Create an Online Gift Card
Now that you officially have a Shopify account, you’ve opened the door for customers to find you online. The next step is creating the digital gift card that shoppers will buy, which you can do by clicking Products > Gift Cards.
Making the online gift card your own is easy, but you’ll need to edit five main things before it’s completed -- the title, description, media, denominations, and availability. Let’s take a closer look:
- Title - you can either choose to be detailed in your description or minimalistic, but it’s always a good idea to include your company name and something COVID-19 related
- Description - this is your opportunity to really connect with your customers. Let them know you feel their pain and give them reasons why they should buy online gift cards from you.
- Media - creating a custom image for your online gift card is essential in today’s digital world. Customers want something that’s appealing and stylish.
- Denominations - when customers go to purchase an online gift card, they’ll have several different options in terms of amounts. Keep it simple because they can always purchase multiple.
- Availability - this feature allows you to choose where you want to make this online gift card available. For now, we’ll be selecting ‘Online Store’
Once you have the gift card created, you’re one step closer to launching your store and seeing the revenue pile in. As of right now, it’s always good practice to double check your work and make sure you’re happy with the design of your gift card.
3. Personalize & Brand Your Online Store
Now that you have a gift card to sell, it’s time to personalize your online store so it matches the rest of your brand. This is a vital part of the process because your customers need to recognize the online store as yours.
To do this, select Sales Channels > Online Store > Themes and select the theme you’d like to use. There are a wide range to choose from, so take your time and select one that fits your business the most.
Clicking Customize allows you to edit the theme to your liking.
Inside the edit screen, you’ll see a list of sections on the left side and then a visual of what your site looks like in the middle. You can switch between different pages on the top, as well as different screen sizes (mobile and tablet also offered).
As you go through and edit your online store, here are some things to keep in mind:
- You can remove sections on the left to start with a clean slate or you can hide them to add back later.
- It’s best to start with an image overlay with text as an intro to your online store. Upload an image that represents your company well.
- Add a Featured Product section to easily and clearly display your gift card to shoppers. You can allow them to purchase multiple by turning on the Quantity Selector.
- Add your logo to the Header area of the store, as well as other pages if you want to create an About Us.
- Add social media links and buttons to the site wherever possible, as well as a place for them to contact you via email or phone.
- Go to Settings > Payment Providers to allow Shopify to automatically capture payment for orders.
- You can play around with adding different sections, but this is all you’ll need for an easy-to-build online store.
With your store in-tact, you can officially say you own an online store to supplement your brick-and-mortar business. This is the start of something new and can be the venture that saves your business during these difficult times.
4. Share the Store With Customers
Now you’re ready to start bringing customers to your online store. In order to give them access, you first need to take away the password protection on the site. Go to Online Store > Preferences and turn off the Enable Password option.
Once you complete that step, your site will be visible to anyone that enters the URL to your online store. Start marketing it all over social media, notify your customers via email, and spread the news through word of mouth. Make sure everyone knows where to find your online store.
5. Manage Your Sales
One of the amazing features on Shopify is the ability to easily track orders and gift cards that have already been purchased. This makes it easy to verify when someone wants to use a gift card by checking the date it was purchased, as well as manage how much the customer has remaining.
Enhancing Your Gift Card Experience
There’s a lot to gain when you start selling online gift cards, but this is only the start of this journey for you. There are a wide range of things you can do to enhance the experience for both you and the customer as you start to gain traction with your online store.
Here are some ideas to keep your creative juices flowing on how to continue expanding:
- Use Canva’s gift card maker to create a personalized image for your gift cards. The more unique and engaging this is for the customer, the better it is for your business.
- Reward loyal customers by discounting gift cards with a higher price tag on them. It incentivizes them to buy the big gift cards, putting more money in your pocket now.
- If you want to easily market your gift cards on someone else’s site or make them available on your existing site, use the Buy Button channel when selecting the availability of the gift card.
- Don’t hesitate to start bringing your other products and services to your online Shopify store. There’s so much to do, including an About Us page, Staff page, advertising opportunities, customize emails, and more.
Getting started with selling gift cards online is easy and the opportunities are endless. If you need help working your way through this process without difficulty, contact Consultants In-A-Box to connect with one of our trusted professionals immediately.
We look forward to helping your business offer customers an online store and online gift cards!
How To Choose The Right Bookkeeping Software
Most small business owners aren’t considered experts at financial management. Since your business’ financials never stop, having to manage this yourself with ineffective tools can be frustrating and time-consuming. It’s what makes small business bookkeeping such a dread.
Finding the right bookkeeping software for your company is essential to maintaining an organized environment that limits mistakes and confusion. Below, we’re going to discuss some of the most important factors when determining the best bookkeeping software -- that way you can make a more-informed decision.
Finding the Best Bookkeeping Software
First and foremost, you need to understand what your business needs. Some businesses need something simple, while others need something complex. Some companies might be looking for something that can support both if they plan on scaling the business in the future.
Either way, you need to have a deep understanding of this before you start looking at software or consultants. It’ll help you narrow down your options initially so you can focus on the things that separate the best bookkeeping software from everything else.
In order to determine that, there are five major factors you need to consider -- customization, simplicity, accessibility, customer support, and integration. To limit any confusion with these factors, we’ll break them all down one-by-one for you.
1. Customization & Personalization
When it comes to small business bookkeeping, every business is unique and they all have their own way of operating. In order for a bookkeeping software to be of any assistance to your needs, it needs to be flexible enough to customize and personalize to your liking.
Whether you have hourly employees or contractors working for you, need assistance managing income and expenses, or need general help when it comes to taxes, your bookkeeping software should have a solution for you.
2. Ease of Use is Crucial
No small business owner wants to invest company funds into a bookkeeping software that provides more confusion and frustration than it does assistance. In fact, it would defeat the purpose of investing in bookkeeping software to begin with.
Your new software shouldn’t have a steep learning curve for any business owner or accounting team. It should streamline the process and save you loads of time in the process. If you’re receiving anything less than that from your bookkeeping solution, it’s time for new software
3. Accessibility At All Times
Much like you want the software to be simple, you also want it to be accessible. This means having the ability to view your books and financial insight whenever or wherever you need to -- especially since most small business owners are constantly on-the-go.
It doesn’t matter what device you’ve grown to love over the years, your new bookkeeping software should be supported on it. Phones, tablets, laptops, PCs, you name it!
4. Excellent Customer Support
Any product, service, or software needs excellent customer support. Nothing is perfect and you’re sure to run into an issue, question, or comment at some point. Since bookkeeping is a stressful process in general, having courteous and helpful customer service agents by your side is a must.
That also means having easy access to these agents, whether it be live chat, phone call, email, by mail, in-person, or through social media. The more options, the better!
5. Integration At It’s Finest
Over the years, every small business owner has become attached to certain software, apps, tools, and resources when running their business. Having a bookkeeping software that easily integrates with your existing operations is essential to finding one that works for you.
When you have all your technology working together, it makes everything that much easier for you and your team. Since putting yourselves in a position to succeed is crucial to achieving success, you’ll be in a good spot moving forward.
Now that you know what to look for, put that knowledge to good use and find a bookkeeping software that works well with your business. Contact Consultants In-A-Box today to learn more about our solutions and how we can help you take control of your business’ financials.
Money-Saving Accounting Tasks That You Don’t Need to Outsource
Most small business owners fear the term ‘accounting’ and run from anything considered ‘bookkeeping.’ While outsourcing your accounting needs is beneficial to your company, it also costs money. The key here is limiting the amount of work you need to outsource with the right accounting tips.
How do you do that, exactly?
You take some of the easier responsibilities for yourself and leave the more difficult accounting tasks for the professionals. Don’t worry, the accounting tasks you take on won’t take any special skills and won’t be time-consuming.
They will, however, be money-saving and that’s what’s most important.
Today, we’re going to discuss five of the simplest and easiest-to-manage accounting tasks small business owners should learn to take care of themselves. With the right software and accounting tips, these tasks will be as easy as checking your social media.
1. Invoicing
Microsoft Excel is an amazing tool that can provide a wide range of benefits to any business -- including managing and recording invoices. Unfortunately, using Excel puts you at risk of constant data entry errors, wrong dates, incorrect amounts, and more.
Of course, this all leads to a delay in receiving payment from the client or customer, which is what no small business owner wants.
Avoiding this requires the right accounting software and accounting tips to help you not only automate your invoicing, but allow you to easily and quickly preview an invoice before being sent. This makes it much for manageable for any busy small business owner.
In addition to that, accounting software can help you change currency for each client, accept deposits up-front for work you just signed a contract for, receive notifications about overdue invoices, allowing the ability to duplicate past invoices for easy editing, and much more.
2. Accepting & Recording Payments
Getting the invoice to the client is essential, but making sure they have the resources to quickly and easily pay that invoice is just as important. It’ll put a smile on your face when you see clients and customers paying you in a timely manner.
The right accounting software helps you not only keep track of who paid you, but also how they paid, whether the payment was cleared, when it was sent, when it was paid, and just about anything else you’ll need to track when it comes to accepting and recording payments.
The right software also saves you time by giving you an all-in-one solution when depositing checks, handling payments that bounce, and even helping you with foreign currency exchange when dealing with customers overseas.
In terms of accepting payments, you can integrate an easy option built into the invoice. That way the client can pay that invoice the moment they receive it with little work on their end. You can set it up so the money is deposited directly into your business bank account.
In terms of recording everything, a majority of data is recorded automatically to make it easier on the business owner. It’ll keep everything under the same roof so you can easily manage future, current, past, and overdue invoices.
3. Expenses
When it comes to accounting tasks, managing income isn’t so bad when watching your business grow and receive payments. Unfortunately, things aren’t as fun when managing the money your business is losing -- but they’re just as crucial to the process.
When using a spreadsheet, tracking expenses is difficult and leaves your business prone to mistakes. With the right software and small business accounting tips, you can connect your business bank account directly to the software. That way all your expenses are automatically uploaded to the software every single day.
It’ll make keeping track of expenses a lot easier because you’ll only have to add in the cash expenses, which don’t happen as often in business. Simply snap a picture of the receipt, add in what it was for and how much, and save the entry. You can always label them to further organize, as well.
Accounting software can also help you manage tax deductibles, including meals, business travel, vehicle-related costs, home office expenses, and technology costs.
4. Sales Tax
Collecting sales tax helps cover tax costs for any small business owner, but most neglect the process of recording and keeping track of the sales tax collected over the past year. This leads to the sales tax being added into your income and used with your spending money.
Of course, a nightmare is bound to happen when you don’t have the funds to cover tax payments. To avoid this from happening, it’s important to manage sales tax collections and keep them separate from everything else you’re receiving.
You’ll always have access to your data and can easily manage how much you’ll owe in sales tax whenever you need to.
5. Financial Knowledge
When running a business, it’s essential you understand where your business stands financially at all times. You need to know how much cash flow you have, how much money is coming in, how much is leaving, and knowing what the future has in store for you.
Most business owners wait to take care of all these things at month’s end, but that leaves you prone to rushing and making mistakes. Having a software that keeps everything right in front of you throughout the month allows you to stay on top of where your business stands whenever and wherever.
Financial reports should be easy to run and easy to read, they shouldn’t add more frustration to your situation. When choosing a software that’s right for your company, take this into consideration to avoid making the wrong investment.
Once you start to turn these small business accounting tips into habits, you put your business in a much better position moving forward. You’ll have the confidence you need to grow your company and inspire your employees to do better every day.
