Your Competitive Advantage Is Just A Click Away!

Sue, your typical business owner, was too busy putting out the brushfires of her business. One day, her friend decided to drop in on her. When she arrived she found a very flustered Sue sitting at her desk trying to organize a pile of customer invoices, product purchase orders and sales receipts. She was shuffling this paper trying to balance her sales and expenses for the month as well as decide which products need to be reordered to stock her store shelves. Recognizing her state of frustration, her friend said, " Sue, its time for a computer system. I know a company that could build you a managerial and accounting information system to alleviate all this paper shuffling. I was in your shoes until they helped my company."

Sue's friend was right. Many companies have processes that they are keeping track of on paper or through the use of a spreadsheet. This takes a great length of time to process, is vulnerable to many errors, and is not linked to any other business process. With a computerized system, it would integrate business processes and allow the computer user to gather different pieces of information by the simple click of a mouse button that at one time could have taken weeks to gather manually. This information at your finger tips allows you to run your business more efficiently and could give you the edge against your competition.

Sue's response to her friends statement was typical. She looked up at her appearing even more flustered than before and commented, " Computers are difficult to use, temperamental, and I don't think that they could help my business!" With Sue's comment, her friend realized that she had to be introduced to The Business Solution.

When I met Sue, I told her that she is not alone in her thinking. With the evolution of the 90's also came with it the evolution of the computer for the small business owner. Today's computers are both powerful and economical and are in the reach of all business owners whether young, old, technologically advanced or computer shy. While some individuals, perhaps even many individuals, fear the power and complexity of the computer, others welcome it's abilities and the simplicity by which things can be accomplished.

Computer programs can easily facilitate business management and keep errors to a minimum. While many people feel that computer systems are difficult to use and create more work in the long run, quite the opposite is true. A good computer system should be customized to the business owner's needs so that they feel comfortable using the system and it fulfils their particular organizational needs.

Why purchase a customized package?

There are many "off the self" software packages available on the market to run your business. Unfortunately, if you have any specific requirements of the software that does not follow the norm, the software will not be of much use without elaborate systems to compensate for the software's shortfall.

The company designing the computer system requires in depth business knowledge. They should analyze your specific business process and paperwork and then design software specific to your business. One of the main benefits that the software we design has is that we study your business process and build the software for you alone. The system is very easy to use since it follows your normal business process.

Sue was beginning to realize that I could help her after all. The idea of a customized computer package that would be designed for her alone, and with her level of comfort in mind, prompted her to ask, " What are some of the business processes that can be facilitated with customized software?"

I answered this question by providing her real life scenarios of some companies that we had helped in the past. One company in the delivery business was making 300 deliveries a day and found it difficult tracking the deliveries so that they could invoice the customers and pay their drivers. After careful analysis of their business plan, we designed a computer software package that aligned their goals and managerial objectives. The program consisted of a system that tracked daily deliveries and invoiced customers according to the contracted time of payment to ensure that everything was paid on time. And this all takes place with the click of a few buttons. This was not possible with pencil and paper as invoices often got lost and there is no automatic link between the customer agreement form and the invoice system. A similar system was designed for a company that wholesales tobacco to the rest of Canada and needed software to track inventory, customers, and to calculate the complicated tobacco tax automatically so they could invoice their customers. This had all been done manually by the owner who was reluctant at first to switch to a computer system but soon realized how much easier and more efficient daily transactions had become once he was trained on the system. With the new free time that was found through efficiency, the owner looked at how to make money in the business rather than fight the every day brush fires.

How can software improve your business?

• Track your customers name and address. When did you last do business with them? How can you do business with them in the future?
• Track activities like sales, inventory, costing, and memberships.
• Minimize paper flow by printing out only what you need and store the rest of the information in the computer.
• In depth business information that was unattainable before, is now at your finger tips.
• By allowing activities that in the past would be too labour intensive.
• On a frequent basis you can analyze how you are doing compared to your business plan, and then make the necessary adjustment to stay on course.

When is a good time to upgrade your business process?

Sue wanted to know if there was a good time to switch to a computerized tracking system. I explained to her that anytime is a good time and that the sooner a system is implemented, the sooner the business could run with less complications and more accurate records. " Sue, even though your desk is covered in papers, you can't find the information that you require. This often results in a business opportunity slipping through your fingers because the details were scribbled on a scrap of paper that was lost in the pile. This system will indicate exactly how you did financially and managerially the previous month, instead of waiting until your accountant processes the paper work at year end. Furthermore, customers will get billed on time for work or products that you provided, and you will know exactly how much it cost to produce your product or service."

I continued to explain that software must be tied into business planning. It is important to develop a long term business plan and use computer software to let you know that you are on track. Business is becoming more and more competitive. Practically every week there is a horror story of a another company going out of business. With a solid action plan for success, coupled with software program(s) to run and monitor your business, you can put yourself ahead of the competition and, instead of you, it could be your competitor that is having difficulties keeping the doors open.