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Simple CRM and biz management tool for a small business?
JavaJones:
Hello mighty DonationCoder community! I beseech you to turn your powerful and all knowing gaze toward this simple problem which presently confounds me.
I find myself the sole, voluntary IT support for a friend's small business, a simple 2 person floral design studio and flower shop. They mostly do weddings and corporate clients, with infrequent in-person sales, and so far no online sales. They use Quickbooks Pro 2010 and have 1 desktop and 1 laptop system they use for all their work, both running Windows 7.
When a previous laptop recently crashed, I found myself waste-deep in a tangle of horribly organized documents and inconsistent business practices while recovering their data. I felt I had to do something about this. So, what they need is a simple, easy to use system for managing customer relationships, sales, simple marketing efforts, appointments and tasks, etc.. Preferably the system should have all those parts integrated, and also integrate with their existing Quickbooks data. Ideally it would also be relatively inexpensive as they are a small business without much money to spend at the moment; in fact they're in a bit of a financial pickle, though they're managing to stay afloat. They desperately need more customers though and providing tools to let them more easily run marketing campaigns is a part of this whole project.
So far I have spent a lot of time looking at dedicated CRM applications and systems like SalesForce, SugarCRM, etc. I've also looked at separate components like Google Apps for contacts, docs, and calendaring, mailing list tools for marketing, etc. The problem with the full-blown CRM systems is they seem way too complicated. They need something that replaces a bunch of separate Word and Excel docs in a unified system (e.g. imagine trying to search for past customer transaction info if your receipts are all separate Word docs, many of which have different formatting). So the Google Docs approach is also non-ideal. It solves some of the problems, but doesn't really focus on customer relationship management at all. They'll be using Gmail and Google Calendar regardless, but as far as building a customer database with good info, and then leveraging that database for ongoing marketing, they're lost with current tools. Ideally it *would* be an online tool like this so they could access it anywhere, even from a mobile device (the manager has a Blackberry), but a desktop Windows app would suffice if price and features were a better fit. They have web hosting and I can install any web apps for them.
In searching for something that could work for them it really struck me how difficult the world of the small business owner is, especially if they're not super technically minded. They are in a strange limbo world where they're big enough to want dedicated tools to keep them organized and, especially, to help them *grow* their business. At the same time they're not big enough or technically savvy enough to really make use of something like SalesForce or other complex CRM packages, nor can they necessarily afford the versions they might need. Just as an example, they want to start email marketing, which seems like a virtually essential thing these days. The version of SalesForce that has this integrated is $65/mo per user (potentially $130/mo if they both need access), which seems like relatively small potatoes I admit, but is still a lot considering what they're doing now is free. ;)
I'm willing to try to sell them on the financial benefits of better organization and marketing tools (if they get just 1 additional customer from it, it could arguably pay for itself). Still they are somewhat in a panicky state as far as finances go right now, as I mentioned.
Any help and info greatly appreciated!
- Oshyan
KynloStephen66515:
SugarCRM is a great platform, and doesnt take too long to get to grips with, dunno if it supports Quickbooks though, but a day or so manually entering them aint such a big deal.
Thats about the best advice I can give you as i have personally been hunting for a good, lighweight one, where i can choose which options to install, and which to hide :P
JavaJones:
Well I'm thinking more and more there may be a big opportunity here to provide such a tool to small business owners. Most of the systems I see, even if they're functional for small businesses, are marketed so clearly above them that they're not relevant anyway. I'll keep looking, but if I don't find something soon it's going on my list of stuff to develop. ;)
As for SugarCRM, if it can be slimmmed down so as not to overwhelm these guys, then that's good. I'll look at it further. I think there are some options for Quickbooks sync. It's not so much the one-time syncing as the regular, daily or weekly syncing that is a problem. You do want to keep them in alignment. Now if there are web store systems that integrate with Sugar...
- Oshyan
40hz:
I think their biggest challenge is going to be in getting what they have (and what they're doing) better organized. Until they've gotten their business processes 'rationalized,' a CRM is only going to make things worse by adding an additional layer of complexity to what is basically a mess.
First thing they need to do is sit down and set up a process and establish some procedures before they go much further. A long weekend is ideal for this sort of thing. Then, once they have this framework in place, they're going to have to make a conscious effort to stick to it. It will take about a month to learn the new habit.
Just my :two: having been in that boat with my own business once. ;D
As far as CRM goes, it is pretty much overkill for any company with less than five employees. Unfortunately, what you're looking to do also goes beyond the capabilities of most PIMs.
Luckily, there is a group of programs that fills the gap between PIMs and traditional CRMs. These are the so-called "small CRMs" or "advanced contact manager" apps.
The one my company used to use was a product called Maximizer ( www.maximizer.com ) and I was generally quite pleased with how it worked. Maximizer has since gone on to version 10 and added a number of features such as integration with Quickbooks and MS Office, along with support for mobile devices. They now have an "Entrepreneur Edition" specifically geared towards solo practitioner and small businesses. Might be worth a look.
There's a bit of a learning curve with a product like Maximizer, but that's to be expected since running a business isn't a trivial task either. And again, it's a matter of practice until new behaviors become habits.
:Thmbsup:
JavaJones:
Great input 40hz, once again. I will say though that my hope is a CRM-type app would *enforce* an organizational scheme on them. I just want it to be one that's easy to learn and adapt to, and sensible for their business. I honestly don't expect them to be able to organize their business better without a tool, they're just too scattered. They have adapted to the limitations (and capabilities) of their tools in the past and I think they can do it again. Now I just need to find the right tool. I will definitely check out Maximizer. Do you know where I might find other options for such "small CRM/advanced contact manager" apps? e.g. a Wikipedia comparison matrix or something?
Where are you located btw?
- Oshyan
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