SaaS: What can Software as a Service do for your small business? (Part 1)
Programs that use your web browser as the primary interface have been with us for years, but only recently have these apps begun to flourish and become genuine alternatives to mainstream small business and enterprise software. In this article, I’m not going to delve into the nitty-gritty of why or how this has happened, but rather focus on why it is fantastic news for small business owners.
Looking at traditional approaches to business software, the choices were not all that advantageous for small business. Basically, you use a program that you install on a single computer, such as a laptop or desktop computer in your office. Data is only available there, and any sort of software or hardware problem meant costs for IT maintenance, reliance on backups if you were diligent enough to maintain them, and potential downtime for your business.
WSJ: Firms Outsource a Top Job as Cheaper Than Hiring Their Own Executive
by Raymond Flandez
This past year, Al Lovata, chief executive of Be Our Guest Inc., cut expenses for his party-equipment rental business by laying off staff and reducing workers’ salaries. He credits an “outsourced” chief financial officer with helping him prepare for the worst of the economic downturn.
The Boston-based company had sales growth in the double digits for the past few years, when revenue fell flat last fall. Now, thanks to the part-time CFO’s guidance, the company is stable with revenue down 20% to 30%, but profitability higher than in the previous months, he says.
If we hadn’t had this service, “we would still be struggling,” Mr. Lovata says.
Mike Loria of Re.Source Partners Asset Management, in Detroit, consults his CFO, Sheri Pawlik of B2B CFO.
Some small-business owners in need of accounting help to balance their books and guide them out of a financial black hole are renting CFOs rather than hiring them. The strategy comes at a time when the deep recession has forced small companies to look for money-saving alternatives that can yield good returns yet avoid substantial overhead costs.
“They’re looking for ways to streamline and be efficient as they can,” says Glenn Dunlap, a co-founder of Milestone Advisors LLC, a small-business consulting firm in Indianapolis that provides CFO services.
An Intellectual Property Primer
What are copyrights, registered trademarks, and patents?
by Gord Hooker
Intellection Property is a topic that few entrepreneurs consider and even fewer truly understand, but it can have important ramifications for your company. Like many forms of property, intellectual property (or IP, as it’s often abbreviated as) has value, and like anything of value, you must take precautions to protect it.
Copyrights, registered trademarks, and patents are all measures taken to protect a different type of intellectual property. The purpose of this article is to define each of these measures and discuss how you implement them.
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How does scalability affect the value of your business?
Scalability is the capacity to increase the size of your operation without a breakdown in processes, communications, or efficiency. Highly scalable companies are characterized by the ability to increase capacity without a huge increase in overhead. In other words, highly scalable companies have minimal impediments to growth.
For example, a grocery store is highly scalable. Simply restock shelves more often, and add more checkouts, and you can accommodate a huge increase in sales volume. Notice that you rarely see a grocery store with the all of the tills open? That’s because the additional overhead from that extra capacity is so inexpensive that they build in a large amount of excess capacity from day one. Conversely, I would not consider a restaurant as scalable, because it requires a large capital investment to add more kitchen equipment and space to the dining room. If business slows down, it is very difficult to scale back the operation.
How scalable is Google? Just add more servers!
