Now, think of the price of doing this. No, not the monetary price…in fact, the QuickBooks Online Edition only costs approximately $200 more for one year of service than the actual desktop software version (such as QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Premier). The price I’m speaking of is in terms of speed, and functionality:

The biggest downside for me and the average business owner is speed. The Online Edition adds a tremendous amount of time to your day-to-day operations … reports that generate in just a few seconds on the desktop edition now take 10-60 seconds depending on the size of your company file and the speed of your internet connection. Limitations on keyboard shortcuts add to the amount of time you will need to spend entering data.

While all users won’t experience a decline in functionality due to their limited use of the program, any business that uses QuickBooks as more than just a “checkbook” program will notice a dropoff in features offered by the Online Edition. One of the features that I find most frustrating is the fact that you can only have one report/screen displayed at a time. On the desktop software, you can have several windows opened at one time and flip back-and-forth between them as needed.

If remote access is your main reason for leaning towards QuickBooks Online, I would suggest that you combine the QuickBooks desktop software with some type of remote access program such as GoToMyPC, WebEx, Citrix, VPN, or some other similar type of remote access software. This way, you have the full functionality of the QuickBooks desktop software and you are still able to access it from remote locations.

Already have QB Online? Don’t worry. QuickBooks has developed a wonderful conversion process where they take your Online Edition company file and convert it to a working company file that can be used with your desktop software. It takes about a 24-48 hour timeframe to complete, during which time you cannot add new data to your file. However, it is well worth that minor inconvenience in order to avoid the ongoing inconveniences of the Online Edition!

What then is attributing to this increase in value? This is what I believe is the major shift in attitudes. When the internet began and websites first came online, they were more brochure-like, a one-way monologue with their users. With the advent of social media like twitter, facebook, and youtube, this has turned into a dialog as it’s given users a voice to not just one or two people, but with thousands. Sites like Groupon and LivingSocial have successfully monetized on this ‘dialog transformation’. With the advent of blogs, companies are no longer just an online brochure in the business of telling and selling. They are now in the business of building relationships. A blog has profound implications that benefit a business:

• Helps build trust, credibility, and good will.
• The more you give, the more you can expect to get.
• The increased amount of blog pages directly increases the amount of inbound links.

The Cost Benefit

Hubspot touted some interesting figures after performing a survey on costs-per-lead on organizations that focus on inbound leads (seo, blogging, twitter, facebook, etc) vs organizations that focus on outbound leads (direct mail, telemarketing, trade shows). The survey showed that the cost per lead for inbound leads was 60% less than outbound leads. This number was further rationalized by secondary data on the methods of inbound leads:

• Companies that blog get 55% more website visitors.
• 57% of businesses have acquired customers through their company blog.
• 42% of companies have acquired a customer through Twitter.
• 2/3 of marketers say their company blog is “critical” or “important” to their business
• The number of marketers who report that Facebook is “critical” or “important” to their business is 83%.
• 67% of B2C companies and 41% of B2B companies have acquired customers through FaceBook.
• 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend the brands they follow.

So, in short, we can see the power of community-based marketing in terms of cost-savings and growth. It does not make sense to send an advertising message to the many in hopes of persuading the few.

Adapt or Perish

The online world is changing rapidly. This has a direct implication to your business model. Start thinking about your business as a community-driven entity. Communicate and learn what your customers want. We all know that it’s easier said than done sometimes, but we also know that it is critical. If you’re not doing this now, you need to change. You may not like change, but you’ll like irrelevancy even less.

I recently came across an interesting article from the owner of a portland cafe called Posie’s and how Groupon almost bankrupted her business.

The coffee shop owner, Jessie Burke, had heard of Groupon through a friend and decided to speak with a rep about how to promote an offer to attract new business. The rep suggested a general discount for the greatest exposure and most sales. They agreed upon a price of $6 for $13 worth of credit because, as the rep stated, people really respond to deals over 50%. What was a surprise to her was that Groupon sought to keep the entire $6. After some negotiation, they agreen on a 50/50 split where Groupon would get $3 and Posie’s would get $3. However, the $3 for Groupon was pure profit. Selling $13 of credit for a return of $3 was not sustainable because their markup was in place to cover their other costs like staff, rent, utilities, etc.

The Groupon promotion was a smashing success with over 1,000 of these discounts sold. But this success amounted to disastrous losses for Posie’s.

After three months of Groupons coming through the door, I started to see the results really hurting us financially. There came a time when we literally couldn’t not make payroll because at that point in time we had lost nearly $8,000 with our Groupon campaign. We literally had to take $8,000 out of our personal savings to cover payroll and rent that month. It was sickening, especially after our sales had been rising.

It’s not that Groupon was selling a bill of goods to Mrs. Burke. Their promise is to bring new customers for their clients by using their ever-increasing popularity. But that’s where it stops. They do not know your business and what makes it tick. Groupon’s business model is extremely clever and it’s for that reason that it has become one of the fastest growing sites on the internet. But the problem with the model itself isn’t about making money for Groupon, it’s about making money for Groupon’s clients. Groupon has no shared risk. And it’s that problem that got Josie’s in such a position.

There are a couple lessons that can be learned in this case. First, customers that are lured to your business by a general discount may not be interested in what you love about your business. They get something they think is cheap and you quite possibly operate at a loss. Second, focus on building happy, repeat customers rather than growth at any cost.

There could be a great benefit from the exposure of a Groupon event for your business, but it’s important to clearly research what sort of campaign will work for you. If we were to look at the coffee shop as an example, another solution might have been to offer a discount on a specific type of high-end bag of coffee instead of an across-the-board discount. This might have had a better effect as it would have limited the offer to those that knew what sort of deal they were getting on the coffee. And those particular people would be the ones that could more easily be turned into repeat customers.

Just remember that you know your business and your customers better than any fancy advertising rep with the next great marketing pitch ever could. As for Josie’s, they’re still around. Their saving grace was that $13 credit’s expiration date.

Email marketing is all about generating a list. Many companies will ask for your email address and use it only for their purposes, never sharing it with others. Still, there are those that will legitimately collect your email address only to sell it to other companies. To curb such practices, Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act in 2003. This Act requires marketers to include unsubscribe links, physical addresses, clear subject headings and legitimate “To” and “From” addresses. People can now be prosecuted for harvesting lists. So how do marketers correctly collect email addresses from its users?

The email marketing world has undergone some major changes due to this Act. Two of these methods are called the Single Opt-In and the Double Opt-In.

Single Opt-In

A single opt-in is where a user signs up for a newsletter on a website. They may or may not get a confirmation email message, but no further action is required. Companies can also legally add your email address to their marketing if you purchase a product from their web store. It is considered a previous and established relationship even if you do not select the box to be added to their newsletter(s). Basically, as soon as you supply your email address to a website, you have opted-in using the Single Opt-In process.

Double Opt-In

The Double Opt-In process is more recognized and more preferred to most respected and professional marketers. To be considered a Double Opt-In, a user enters their email address on a website. They then receive an email asking them to complete another step to subscribe. This usually entails clicking on a link in the body of an email to confirm they, in fact, do want to subscribe. Once you have completed that second step, you have confirmed the Double Opt-In process. This method is also more useful for marketers in the chance they get sued by a user for spamming. A Double Opt-In process creates a greater firewall around a company in case of legal action.

While the Double Opt-In method is more preferred, it does mean that you are required to use it. Both the Single and Double Opt-Ins are allowed by law. It is up to you which method you choose.