Archives for June 2019

CloudBooks is specifically designed to help small businesses and freelancers manage their billing. But what makes this platform truly unique are its additional features that help with successful client management.

Relationships with clients have a direct effect on the growth and success of your small business.

That’s why many small to medium-sized businesses (SMB’s) look for ways to stay connected with their clients through marketing systems. For example many turn to a customer relationship management platform to manage face-to-face meetings between customers and salespeople. These tools can certainly improve the business-customer relationship. However, one area that business owners often overlook in this regard is accounting and billing.

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The way you handle finances between your business and your customers is incredibly important for creating a good relationship. For instance, if you should happen to bill a customer incorrectly or send them an inaccurate estimate report, you could damage the trust you are trying to build with them.

On the other hand, if they miss a billing cycle or are late on a payment, it could cause you frustration and eat into your profitability.

Therefore, it is important to keep all of these financial forms organized and accurate. Also, in order to simultaneously help your business grow, it is best to utilize an online system to support all of your billing and accounting processes.

CloudBooks is a great cloud-based option that is specifically designed for small businesses and freelancers for managing their billing. But what makes this platform truly unique are the additional features that help with successful client management.

Here’s how.

CloudBooks Helps You Nurture Relationships with Clients and Partners

Relationships with customers is typically an area where SMB’s shine. This is because smaller organizations can truly focus on individual customers.

CloudBooks can help to ensure that the financial side of these relationships remains organized and available. All finance-related items are accessible from anywhere, thanks to the cloud system. This includes invoices, estimates, reimbursements, and expense reports.

Therefore, if a client needs an updated copy of an invoice, for example, you can instantly email it to them or share it with them online. What’s more, if anything changes, all of the numbers will automatically adjust in real time.

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

CloudBooks also offers forecasting capabilities. This allows for accurate estimates and time-tracking. In this way, your clients will know exactly how long a project will take as well as how much it will cost them.

Estimating a project is always tricky. If you overestimate, you might lose a sale. On the other hand, under-estimating could cause major issues with your client later on. CloudBooks can help you keep all of your estimates organized and itemized. Consequently, you can look to past quotes. This will help you to create more accurate estimates based on proven numbers.

Easily Schedule On-Time Payments

It is difficult for a small business to grow financially if they are
failing to collect payments in a timely manner. Furthermore, if you charge late
fees on missed payments, failing to catch these charges leaves money on the
table.

Maintaining a regular billing cycle is important for client relationships. Obviously, a customer will not be happy if they are suddenly hit with additional late fees without warning.

This is why your small business needs to utilize an organized, regularly scheduled payment system. What’s more, you need a system that will accommodate your clients’ payment agendas while keeping you on top of due dates for your accounts receivable.

With CloudBooks, it will be far easier for your small business to stay on top of client payment schedules so that you don’t miss anything. You can even send out automatic reminders to notify a client that a bill will be coming soon.

Moreover, to make things smoother for international transactions, CloudBooks offers auto billing. Plus, it is integrated with PayPal and 2checkout.

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

With CloudBooks You Will Get Better Feedback

Establishing a trustworthy reputation is essential for small
business growth.

According to BrightLocal’s latest report, 86% of customers read reviews when they are considering a new small business. Also, 91% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust a personal recommendation.

Therefore, gathering lots of feedback from your clients is crucial for generating new leads. You must also pay attention to feedback you get from clients. This will help you to improve clients’ future experiences.

However, most customers are unlikely to leave a review of their own accord, unless their experience was either exceptionally great or incredibly poor. Therefore, it is best to use a review gathering system that invites all of your customers to share their honest opinions.

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

To this end, CloudBooks offers an automated follow-up email requesting reviews from all of your customers. This greatly increases the likelihood of receiving feedback. Post positive reviews online as social proof that your business is trustworthy. Also, be sure to scrutinize all reviews, both positive and negative, to make improvements to your business.

Monitor Your Growth for Financial Responsibility

Just because your business is attracting more clients or closing more deals does not necessarily mean that it is growing and succeeding. If your profit margins are shrinking or you are spending more on marketing in order to generate leads, your small business may actually be reverting in terms of profitability.

Staying on top of financial growth is key for every single business. CloudBooks is designed to help you stay on top of all aspects of your company’s margins. It does this by generating financial reports based on your accounting information. These reports will provide you with up-to-date and instant information about where your money is coming from and where it is going.

Image Source: CloudBooksApp.com

CloudBooks offers five main types of accounting reports:

• Expense reports to show where your money is being spent
• Payments collected
• Profit and loss
• Tax summaries
• PayPal payments for summaries of all online transactions with this platform

In short, CloudBooks takes the guesswork out of financial reporting by breaking down the most important metrics into easily readable reports. Use these reports for smarter planning.

Conclusion

Most small businesses feel like the cards are stacked against them when it comes to staying competitive with larger organizations.

It’s true that bigger businesses have bigger budgets for targeting more customers. They also have the ability to serve more customers due to their larger facilities and greater numbers of employees. However, small businesses do have one distinct advantage over large corporations: their ability to focus on each individual customer by creating personal relationships.

With CloudBooks, it is far easier for small businesses to nurture their financial relationships with their customers by staying on top of all payments and bills.

This platform offers truly great features for both businesses and their clients. With these features, small businesses can create a better customer experience. And this will help your company grow financially.

Looking to add someone to your team? Fantastic! However, before you do, here’s a word of advice: Be careful. A hiring mistake could waste time, cost you thousands, and hurt your business. You can’t just hire any person. You need to hire the right person. But how do you find someone who will be a long-term asset to your business? Follow these best practices for hiring new employees and you’ll be covered.

RELATED ARTICLE: HIRING GREAT PERSONNEL: HOW TO GET IT RIGHT

Outline the Role of New Employees

From the outset, your goal is to bring in a fresh face who will supplement the company rather than detract from it. The benefits of new employees must eventually outweigh their cost. If they don’t, why are you bothering to hire?

Want to do it right? Then you need to know where you need help the most.
You’ll also need to clearly articulate the demands of the job to potential
candidates. Carefully consider what the job entails and what the right
candidate would look like. To aid you with this, list the following:

• Expected duties
• Educational minimums
• Ideal skills
• Work environment
• Everyday responsibilities
• Ideal outcomes
• Salary range

A pointed recruitment strategy for new employees starts with
developing a comprehensive job description. This way, both you and the
candidate know exactly what you’re looking for.

Post the Job

Once you’ve crafted a thorough job profile, post it to as many
places as possible. By casting a wide net, you increase your candidate pool.
The more people that apply, the better the odds that you’ll find the perfect
fit. Therefore, post to:

• Recruiting services – Zip Recruiter
• Job boards – Indeed, Monster
• Social Media – LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
• Classifieds – Craigslist, local classifieds 

Review Applications and Start Initial Screening

Cover letters and resumes are your first layer of screening. If a candidate checks the boxes for minimum requirements, have one of your employees perform initial phone or video screenings. Doing so cuts down on time needed for physical interviewing and selection.

Phone interviews allow you to gauge their fit within the company,
especially when it comes to the culture, salary expectations, and personality.

Interview Smartly

On average, in-person interviews for new employees last anywhere
from 30 to 120 minutes. However, you have limited time in your workday. There
are emails to send, calls to make, meetings to conduct, and problems to solve.
You simply can’t afford to spend too much of your time interviewing. Therefore,
narrow down your candidate list to 5-10 people and then be smart about the
process.

Try to create a uniform interview procedure so it’s easier to compare one candidate to another. Prepare a set of pointed interview questions that you can ask each interviewee. Try to be creative. Ask questions that are thought-provoking, reveal something about their character or skill set, or help you see whether they’d be a good culture fit.

RELATED ARTICLE: 8 QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK WHEN HIRING AN ANSWERING SERVICE

Perform a Background Check

So, you’ve found your new employee? Congrats, you’re almost there, but there’s still legwork left to do! One of the most critical pre-employment solutions for your business involves conducting a background check. This lets you search for any previous criminal or employment issues that weren’t picked up during the interview process.

A proper background check will look at:

• Work references
• Employment confirmation
• Educational credentials check
• Credit check
• Criminal history profile

Knowing who you’re hiring is an essential way that you can protect
your employees, customers, and business from harm or liability.

Report Your New Employee to the Government

You’ve made an offer and it has been accepted. What do you do now?
You’ll have to report your new employee to your state’s department of labor.
Other steps include:

• If this is your first employee,
  you’ll have to get an EIN
  (employer ID number)
• Pay unemployment taxes
• Obtain worker’s comp

Failure to do these tasks could result in serious penalties, fees, and
lawsuits.

Fill Out New Employee Documentation

After any new hire, your first task is to have all the legal employment paperwork filled out and signed. Your new employee can’t get paid until this step has been completed. Forms that require signing include:

• Form W-4 – Tax withholdings sheet
• Form I-9 – Employment Eligibility Verification
• Job Application Form – Contains verifiable info such as education history and previous employment

Hang Workplace Posters

Want to avoid being sued? That can be as simple as hanging some
posters. Businesses are legally required to post federal workplace infographics
in visible locations where employees congregate. The posters you need are:

• Occupational Safety and Health
  (OHSA)
• Fair Labor Standards Act
• Notice to Workers with
  Disabilities Act
• Minimum Wage poster
• Employee Polygraph Protection
  Act

Put New Employees to Work

Breathe a sigh of relief. You’re done! You’ve dotted your I’s and crossed your T’s. It’s time to begin the onboarding process so that you can put your shiny new employee to work.