small businesses - Programming Blog

Anatomy of a Start Up

18 Mar 2010

by Dave SnyderThe Beginning
When we started Second Step Search, the goal was to create an SEO system that Small Businesses could utilize to get actual results. We were getting leads every day from small business owners that had been taken advantage of by various small business SEO companies. We could not help them, because their budgets in the end did not offer us much to work with to get realistic results, and at Search & Social we won’t take on work we can’t have measurable impacts on. However, since we didn’t help them, they were left to wander back into an abyss of SEOs willing to scalp them over and over again.

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Tags: abyss, amp, budgets, measurable impacts, realistic results, small business owners, small businesses, step search

LiteAccounting

In: web resources

16 Mar 2010

What can you use the application for?

As an online application that offers tools that allows any business, regardless of its size, to receive invoices and payments from its customers, Lite Accounting attempts to stay simple but at the same time to be highly effective.

What is the history and popularity of the application?

LiteAccounting has not been around for a long time, but has managed in a short period of time to build a good user base, mostly because of the fact that the application constantly receives upgrades and additional features. This continuous improvement of the application represents one of its great qualities, as even if new features are added and modifications are made, the clean and well arranged interface always remains the same.

What are the differences to other applications?

LiteAccounting is focused on simplicity and accessibility, and exactly these two points are those that make it different from similar applications. While those companies that are very demanding might not find all the tools that they want, the essential ones, those that are needed in order to receive effective invoices and payments are present. Small businesses will find them more than satisfying for their needs and will appreciate the extra simplicity that Lite Accounting has to offer. The important features that cannot miss from an accounting application are present, such as detailed reports, statistics and graphics that show various facts about the invoices and payments.

How does the application look and feel to use?

Lite Accounting´s website, just like the application, is extremely clean and runs smoothly. The same applies to the actual application, which has a user friendly interface, allowing even to someone that is not familiar with computers to find his way around with ease. Additionally, the extensive help list is very well organized and can provide all the required details about the application that any user might seek. A great quality of this web application is that it does not require the user to read any tutorials or specialized guides prior to using it. It is so intuitive and simple that getting familiar with it does not take more than a couple of minutes.

How does the registration process work?

The registration process takes less than 30 seconds. A user name, password and a valid email address is all that is required. Additional settings can be done after, once the user has access to the application. Lite Accounting is free, however those that want more flexibility can purchase premium accounts, that involve a monthly fee.

For those that want to take a look first at the application before registering, a demo account is available via the website, allowing anyone to understand the basics about it. The demo also highlights some of the application´s main features, and since it can be accessed with great ease, it is something worth checking.

What does it cost to use the application?

The premium accounts offer more features than the free account, features that most people that run a company will find essential for increasing the efficiency of their business. The free account has a very restricted number of invoices, 5. Additionally, all the paid accounts allow the user to add his company´s logo on the site and on invoices, to have recurring invoices, to have the benefit of customer statements, and what many will find the most important feature, to get paid online with PayPal.
The values of the paid accounts are as following: Bronze (8$ per month) has a limit of 50 invoices per month. Silver (12$ per month) has a limit of 100 invoices per month.
Gold (18$ per month) has an unlimited amount of invoices per month.
The payment can be done with most web cards, including the giants Visa and Master Card.

Who would you recommend the application to?

The target group of Lite Accounting is obviously small online companies that want a simple and highly efficient solution for receiving invoices and payments from their clients. Larger companies might consider Lite Accounting as a little too simple for them, and might settle for other similar web applications that provide more features.

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