Keeping Track of your customers and prospects is critical for a small business. The following web based applications offer free CRM functionality.

Highrise 250 contacts and one login with the free version.

FreeCrm 5 logins and advertising with the free version.

Zoho CRM 3 logins with the free version.

I read an article today on Forbes today about ‘Why Cloud Computing Matters to Small Biz’ and it reminded my about a story from my past that supports the point made in the article.

About 8 years ago a partner and I put together plan to start  what would be now be called a cloud application.  (Back then the term “cloud” hadn’t been coined in its current form, so it was just a “web-based” application.) As part of this project, I had to put together a business plan which included hardware and networking expenditures. Obviously, for a ‘web-based application’ we needed servers, network infrastructure, a fractional T3 (pipe to the web). Those costs were significant; they included $25,000 in servers, $2000 in network infrastructure and, $5000 per month for Internet, and this didn’t even include rent for a place to keep it all. And for all that, there was no redundancy, and every 5 new customers we would have to outlay another $10,000 for more servers. This was  lot of money for 2 guys without jobs to come up with.

To do the same thing  today, I can go to GoGrid, Force.com, Amazon web services or any other cloud based infrastructure provider, and set it up for a fraction of the cost. On top of that,  the costs are completely tied to usage so I don’t have to outlay a lot of funds up front while I wait for my  customers’ monthly fees to cover the cost.  (Great for cash flow!!). In addition I have, backups, redundancy,  and network bandwidth that can grow with the business.

Needless to say, the cloud creates opportunities for business that just a few years ago were out of reach. (By the way, that business never got off the drawing board for a multitude of reasons)

How do you think the cloud can help or hurt small business ?

You customers don’t use the yellow pages to find you anymore, they use the web.  I have listed four major directories you need to be listed in. These are the ‘yellow pages’ of the 2010’s. If you’re not listed in these directories, not only do you run the risk of being invisible to your customers, your competitors can ‘hijack’ your listings and steal your  customers from you.

1. Google Local. The 800 pound gorilla of everything Internet. With a listing here,  your company will show up on local searches on the web, and on cell phones. It also helps to ensure that when someone types your business name into Google, they will get accurate information.
2. Bing Local Listing Center. Bing is currently  a chihuahua nipping at Google’s heels. But, you should never underestimate  Microsoft with billions of dollars to spend on marketing their new search product.
3. Yahoo Local. While not the behemoth it was 10 years ago, Yahoo still has significant reach — especially with all those yahoo mail users.
4. Yelp. Yelp is not a search engine per se, its a group of listings with comments and ratings. If Yelp covers your area, and users are commenting on your industry and/or business, you need to claim your listing respond to comments.

Not only are these directories available on your potential customers’ desktops, they are also on your customer’s mobile phones.  Making sure you are listed gives you a better chance of being found in the home and on the road.

Related Articles

• Are you invisible to potential customers?

What do you think about local search ?

Toilet Paper Entrepreneur ‡

Since its after Christmas, and you are probably flush with a bit of holiday cash, and you are ready to start on a new business endeavor…how about about spending some of that money on a book? The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur is small book (175 pages) that cover a lot of ground about starting a business.

Ok, before I start, why might you ask would I review a business book on a tech site?  Two reason: first, most computer books are boring, you probably wouldn’t want to read them even if they were ‘good’. Second, this book is peppered with tips about how to use tech to help run your business on a shoestring budget.

The book’s primary focus is small ‘bootstrapped’ start-ups. If you are  planning a $5MM venture round, while some of the techniques in the book could be useful, you are probably not the focus of this book. On the other hand, if you’ve got an idea for a small business, or you are running small business this book may be for you.

The first two sections of the book cover motivation, and creating a vision of where you want your business to go, while the second part deals with a more nuts and bolts approach to running your business.  If you are just getting started running your business, or trying to decide where you want to go with a business,  this book could be very helpfull to you. Be warned, the author, Mike Michalowicz uses some crude language, so it’s not for the under 16 set, but its very easy to read, and he is able explain concepts well.

Here is the tech tie in, throughout the book there are gray boxes with TPE TIPS, a good number of them deal with Internet tools to help you run your business. Its like a getting an extra bonus in your book.

Whether you get the book or not, the author also has a blog that’s worth reading.

Buy this book at Amazon‡

Sometimes the Internet can open up whole new markets for you. I had the opportunity to talk to a gentleman who runs a small  company that provides hand’s-on training for specialized industrial equipment. He sets up training classes all over the country. About 3 months ago he decided to jump into web based training. He hired a company to  make high quality  training videos, and a programmer to initially setup his site. He priced his classes at a very low price point, and after just one month of being live, he is thrilled with the outcome. In that time he has gotten more new customers than he gets in 4 months for his traditional classes. He told me that he has been able to reach a whole new demographic of customers, (younger, more computer literate). Because of his low price point (under $50.00), if his customers can’t get their employers to pay for the class, many are willing to pay out of their own pockets.

What’s the moral of this story–If you have a business that’s not web based, stop, look around, and see if you can expand  your business with web based technology. Technology that was very expensive just 5 years ago is now very affordable. Technologies like web 2.0, cloud computing, and video are high quality and easily within reach of almost any business. Take a few minutes today and think about what you could do for your business, and then see if you can make it happen. Its probably cheaper and easier then you could ever imagine.

Here are  4 sites worth for  reading for tech news if your not a techie and are running a business:

smallbiztechnology.com. As its name indicates, this is a blog that deals with technology for small business. It has lots and news and tips.

CNET. CNET provides tech news and information in a very non-techie friendly format.

ZDNet. More technical than CNet, but worth a regular review.

irunabiz.com. For obvious reasons.

Leave a comment and let  me know what sites you like to read.

Related  Posts:

Fast Read: Technology Help Forums
A couple of great marketing resources

I used it briefly for a blog about 6 months ago, but its been dormant since then. It’s is currently registered with goDaddy. If you are interested,  email domains@solutions4tech.com

According to a one research study I read about recently, nearly 40% of small business do not have a website. If you are one of these businesses you are invisible to the nearly 220 million US Internet users. It’s like having a retail store with no sign, your ARE loosing potential business. Keep in mind that my Grandmother’s 85 year old boyfriend has figured out how to look thinks up on Google, so there are a lot more potential customers on the web then you might think. You need something, it doesn’t have to be large, expensive, or complicated, but you do need something. (Understand that having a website doesn’t mean you will be found — that involves advertising and specialized site design, but not having a site 100% guarantees that you won’t be found!)

Other than presence on the web, what are some of the advantages of having a website?

• It makes your company appear more legitimate.
• You can use your web address on marketing materials and advertising to point people to more information about your company.
• If you start listing your business in on-line directories, you can point to your site for more information.
• Someday (soon) the yellow pages will go away.

What do you do next?

1. Register a domain name. If at all possible get a .com, but .biz addresses are good too.

2. Find a web host. Microsoft Office Live will host your site for free  (yes, free). They also have templates you can use to build the site.  Currently I use GoDaddy.com‡ for my site and blog.

3. Design your site. Most hosting companies offer either free or paid packages to help you design your site.

(By the way,  when you setup your hosting, you can usually setup an email address that uses your domain name. Do that. Nothing screams ‘fly-by-night’ more than an @hotmail, @gmail, @aol, or @yahoo address for a business)

If you don’t want to do it yourself, hire someone to do it for you (like my company‡), it won’t be that expensive, and it will be worth it in the long run.

Resources

Solutions4Tech for for Website Design (Thats me!)‡

GoDaddy.com for domain registration and hosting‡

Microsoft Office Live

To all Veterans, those actively serving, and all their families: Thank you for your service and your sacrifice.

To the Families of those who have died defending our country: Thank you for your sacrifice, it is appreciated and valued.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Winston Churchill

Windows 7 is scheduled to be released at the end of October. There has been a lot of hype about this version, and how its better than Windows Vista. But should you upgrade? Here is my advice:

1. If you are buying a new computer, get Windows 7, its better than Vista and it will be worth it. ‘Downgrades to XP will be phased out (if they haven’t already) so you don’t have much if a choice anyway. Based on on the reviews, you won’t be disappointed with Windows 7
2. If you have Windows XP do NOT upgrade to Windows 7, the hardware requirements may be more than you have;  many of your programs won’t work without an add on (that’s not available on the lowest priced version of Windows 7); some hardware won’t work; and you can’t actually upgrade–you have backup your data,  erase you hard drive and install Windows 7, download and install the XP add-on,  reinstall your drivers, install your programs, and restore your backup.  Since Microsoft will continue to support XP for the next couple of years, my advice is to  just  buy a new computer when you are ready for Windows 7
3. If you already have Vista its a bit murky. You can upgrade from like version of Vista to like version of Windows 7 without erasing your hard-drive and all of your data and programs. In addition, most of your hardware will be compatible.  So in this case, the upgrade isn’t a big hairy deal. On the other hand, if Vista works for you why bother with the effort and expense. If you do need to upgrade, stick with like versions. Here is a list of the upgrade paths:

• 32-bit Vista Home Basic/Premium upgrades to 32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium
• 64-bit Vista Home Basic/Premium upgrades to 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium
• 32-bit Vista Business upgrades to 32-Bit Windows 7 Professional
• 64-bit Vista Business upgrades to 64-Bit Windows 7 Professional
• 32-bit Vista Ultimate upgrades to 32-Bit Windows 7 Ultimate
• 64-bit Vista Ultimate upgrades to 64-Bit Windows 7 Ultimate

(Source Microsoft)

Also before you upgrade, download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to confirm that you won’t have any problems.

Another reminder: Always backup your important data before you do an upgrade.

Good luck, and leave me a comment to tell me what you decide, and how it goes.