Friday, July 14, 2006

EHelp for Home Businesses

Like most home-based entrepreneurs, Donna Perry has the freedom to take her job practically anywhere. Most of the tools she needs to run DPDesigns--an Internet-services company that designs, hosts and maintains Web sites--are right in her laptop. When she's not visiting clients, she may set up shop on the road or in a field near her Mesquite, Tex., home.

But like most home-based entrepreneurs, Perry pays a price for that freedom: Without a big staff or a big budget, it's hard to keep up with all the work.

Last summer Perry discovered a tool that helps streamline one of her most time-consuming tasks: billing clients. TimeBills.com (www.timebills.com), a time-tracking and invoicing service, lets her record her time and expenses for each client on the fly in customized client accounts kept at the TimeBills Web site. No more scribbling notes on slips of paper. No more attempts to reconstruct those scribbles in QuickBooks. In fact, being able to record her hours while they are still fresh in her memory has paid off in a big way. "I found that I had been underbilling by about $1,500 a month," she says.

Whether or not you sell products or services over the Web, you can use a slew of new Web-based tools aimed squarely at you and other small-business owners. Many are free or low-cost, and all are available anywhere in the world as long as you have a computer with a Web browser and Internet access.

With TimeBills, Perry doesn't have to be in her office at the end of the month to send invoices. She forwards them by e-mail from the company's Web site, which saves her the cost of the postage meter she used to rent just to send invoices. You can also fax them from the site.

Accounts are encrypted and password-protected, and storing data on a server outside the office acts as a backup in case her home computer flatlines. And the price is right: TimeBills.com is free for up to five employees (after that it's $3.95 per month for each additional user). SMALL-BUSINESS SUPERSTORE. Been putting off your business's marketing campaign or letting overdue accounts slide? DigitalWork facilitates those services and nearly 40 more in demand by home businesses. Many are provided by leading business-service companies, and most have starting prices of $100 or less.


Comments: Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]