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Imagine if your favorite team (might be the Jayhawks, might not) decided to play without a plan. Just everyone jump in there and do whatever seems best. They might make a fairly good showing in a pick-up game down at the park. After all, they've spent a lot of time developing their expertise. The real question: how would they fare against another team just as skilled, but operating on a unified approach to the game? Say goodbye to that trophy.

Now let's talk about ERP.

Enterprise resource planning software is the play diagram, whiteboard, film study, and running laps all rolled into one. As discussed on Business-Software.com, ERP is vital for efficiency. And efficiency in your operations will help you accelerate past competitors.

Here are four prime benefits that any small or medium-sized business can gain from a quality ERP system:

Freeing Up Your Staff

Leverage your computer systems to track the details they do best. A machine can track transactions from quote to cash and manage inventory counts like a pro. This liberates time for your people to focus on more complex, more valuable efforts. This amounts to getting the benefit of a new hire without the hassle and expense of hiring. Or drafting another player, to go back to our analogy. So why run laps if you can run plays?

Unified Coordination

A solid game plan makes such a big difference because business is a team sport. Maybe a tennis player and golfer can just give it the old college try and succeed. Or maybe you've got a star player wearing #23, but as your company grows, the impact an individual has on the business shrinks. It becomes more and more valuable for groups to work as a cohesive unit. This kind of coordination is always a challenge, so you don't want to complicate things more by not letting the team know where things stand. More on this in a second.

Data Accuracy

It's becoming a cliche that big data is a game-changer. But no matter how much information you have at your fingertips, if it isn't accurate, it won't help much. A quality ERP system will integrate all your data, making sure that the folks in accounting have a picture that is consistent with what the sales department and the warehouse staff see. Your customers can have a clear understanding as well, which is something they are growing to expect in the e-commerce context.

Company Insight and Agility

The thing about 'big data' is that size is relative. Even a local manufacturing company can benefit from seeing the big picture of the company. You don't need terabytes of data before you can start finding patterns in your operations. A quality ERP system will help you monitor progress towards your company goals and spot emerging trends. These future-facing abilities are exactly what you need to take your game up to the next division. And the best software packages will grow with your company, maximizing the ROI.

As an entrepreneur, you need to think like a coach, addressing multiple levels of operations―from individual players' performance to coordinating plays between departments to monitoring progress through the entire season. Make sure you've got the tools you need to help your team succeed.

A Quality ERP System

"aACE has helped us streamline many of our processes. We have a snapshot of each project with many of the important details being on one screen. We instantly see our profitability within our projects and have specific numbers or data regarding many aspects of our business."

-Lili Hall, President, KNOCK

For more information, contact us today.

With the independence and excitement of starting your own business, there also comes the pressure of completing your own taxes. But one thing worse than taking care of your tax obligations is NOT taking care of them.

To help you with extra tax support for small businesses, the U.S. Small Business Administration has prepared a listing of 8 important areas you should check on. Their article includes several useful links for more detailed explanations and steps on how to complete tax-related tasks. Read on to find out which topics are most relevant to your new company.

1. Business Structure
2. Federal Tax ID
3. Estimated Taxes
4. Tax Reporting Season
5. Freelancers and Contractors
6. Employment Tax
7. Property Tax
8. Sales Taxes

1. Business structure

Your tax obligations will differ based on how your company is organized. For example, while sole proprietorship, general partnership, LLC, and S Corp structures can report business results on a personal tax return, C Corps are not allowed to do this. And the differences multiply when you explore the state-level tax requirements.

2. Federal Tax ID

As with the tax obligations, different business structures also have differing requirements for federal identification. An EIN (Employer Identification Number) is mandatory if your company is a corporation or partnership. Likewise, if you have employees in your shop, you'll need an EIN to assist with employment taxes (see below). On the other hand, sole proprietorships are typically able to operate using an SSN.

3. Estimated Taxes

The transition from employee to entrepreneur can be tricky here. While your employers were responsible for sending regular payments to the state and federal government, as a new boss you have a new responsibility to send in those checks. This means you must keep funds available to cover these payments each quarter. Calculating and delivering each estimated payment will also require some planning. However your business structure will again affect the details of this obligation. Certain structures must be responsible for more than $1000 income tax for the year before the pay-as-you-go model applies.

4. Tax Reporting Timeframes

Your calendar may never be more important than when it's posting a reminder about the quarterly estimated taxes. In the same way, planning ahead for income tax season can help you minimize your stress, as well as your employees' stress when they're waiting for W2 or 1099 forms. Take advantage of calendar events to help you meet all the deadlines.

5. Freelancers and Contractors

Business trends are showing a rise in contractors and freelance workers. These flexible situations can benefit both you and the freelancer. But they bring unique tax requirements as well. Be sure you know exactly what kind of contract you want to offer and what tax obligations it will entail.

6. Employment Tax

Your team plays a huge part in your business success, whether you are running a retail shop or a manufacturing warehouse. Each employee also brings a responsibility for you to withhold Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes. For this vital aspect of business, the IRS has created a free guide to help clarify reporting, deposits, and deadlines.

7. Property Tax

Not every small or mid-sized business will need a dedicated office space, but as your company grows this will become more important. So even if you don't need information about state taxes on real estate now, you probably will later on. More immediate, there may be local taxes―assessed at the county or city level―for other property owned by your company. This might include assets like vehicles, computers, and software. Check with your local tax authority to learn about the registration and payment requirements.

8. Sales Taxes

This is one of the most complicated tax obligations. While a few states don't assess this tax, most require a quarterly or even monthly payment from each business with a physical presence in the state. In addition, the use of drop-shipping services might make you liable for sales taxes in states on the other side of the country. When it gets into this level of complexity, working with a reliable partner like Avalara can be an excellent investments. Their expertise can help you conserve your resources for the tasks that will help your company grow.

 

As an entrepreneur looking to leverage each benefit for to additional effect, you can integrate tax support into your business operations software with aACE, maximizing your business velocity. Take advantage of tools to handle the chores of running a new company, saving your time and attention for the exciting parts.

It may be the Year of the Rooster on the Chinese zodiac, but in business trends a more fitting name might be the Year of the Customer. In several ways, small, mid-sized, and enterprise-level businesses are turning to their clients for guidance.

Seeking out customer preferences helps companies hone their product offerings and marketing approaches. Jeffrey Hayzlett has gathered insight about 5 major trends you can use to make sure your company is aligning closer with the most important people in your industry: your customers.

Trend 1: Elevated customer engagement - Sales is being transformed by a stronger focus on relationships. Rather than a mere transaction, customers are starting to expect companies to provide personalized services. What are recommendations you can offer? What extra insight can you give for someone interested in your products?

Trend 2: Customer data collection - How do you know what to recommend to your customers? From the data you're gathering. (You are gathering data, right?) A quality CRM package is vital here. After you have the needed information, make it a priority to leverage that data into programs and features that take your customer engagement even farther.

Trend 3: Automation - You might not have the resources or clientele to make artificial intelligence and holographic computing a profitable investment, but you can still leverage your tools. That CRM package you invest in should have options for automatically notifying the right person when things need attention. Likewise, your inventory software should recognize low levels and initiate orders to resupply, so when a customer contacts you, the product is on hand.

Trend 4: Crowdfunding - This trend takes customer engagement into the future. It's asking clients just how interested they are in new product lines and services. Then they answer with their wallet. It may take some innovation on your part, but the insight you get into customer preferences can be priceless. Similar appeals directly to the customer include surveys and even informal face-to-face conversations with your shoppers.

Trend 5: Specialization - As soon as you can, start focusing your attention on the niche customers that are most interested in your products and services. The Internet casts a wide net, so as soon as you establish your website and e-commerce pages, you are reaching broadly, in fact globally. But you need to concentrate on understanding what kinds of people see themselves as the best match for your company. Learn from them and cater to them in order to find more customers like them.

Of course you won't be able to fully implement all these options simultaneously. As an entrepreneur, you've got look at your business model and make the decisions that work right for your growing company. But these recommendations can give you inspiration for what angle you need to make 2017 the year of your success.

Any small business can jump on the ecommerce bandwagon. There are abundant tools and services that make it easy to get started. However, just having a storefront online doesn't mean people will line up to give you money. Customers know there are other sellers they can find — any disruption to their purchasing mindset can shut down the sales process.

From Business.com, Kristen Gramigna explains 5 tips to make sure your ecommerce site entices customer engagement throughout the buying process:

1. Transparency - Nobody likes hidden fees. And nothing is more jarring to an online consumer than coming to the final screen and discovering that their purchase is going to cost more than they first thought — or rather, more than you first told them. It might seem that minimizing the initial price will make people more interested, and that's not wrong. But if you aren't up-front about all the costs involved with the transaction, it can make people suspicious or resentful instead. To get the best of both worlds, seek out ecommerce tools that will let you display the basic price, but also inform shoppers quickly about any additional charges.

2. Optimization - Nobody likes to sit around waiting, and that's especially true online. This poses a dilemma: Consumers want to see pictures of what they're buying, preferably in HD, from multiple angles, with close-ups; however, they don't want to cool their heels while those images display. Some research says you have a 2-second window before your potential customer decides that it's not worth the wait and they go somewhere else. It may take some ingenuity, but make sure that something starts showing up on your pages before one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi. For example, an ultra-light version of a product picture could display first, then be covered by a higher definition graphic. And if you're serious about the ecommerce thing, make sure that your online store responds well for mobile users too. More and more shoppers will be checking you out on their phone or tablet.

3. Hospitality - Everybody likes to be a respected guest. Shopping online, it turns out, is no exception. While it would be great to get contact information from every shopper, a significant number of people might not feel that your product is worth giving you money AND giving you their personal information. This is another judgment call of course. For a business that focuses on light manufacturing or other B2B sales, the contact info might be essential. But where it's possible, make sure the people visiting your site know that you respect their privacy so much that you won't ask them for info that isn't necessary. For details on the value of guest services, Gramigna draws on the exceptional research and advice of the Nielsen Norman Group.

4. Security - Everybody likes reassurance about security. You know about the encryption, certification, and expertise that makes your site secure, both for financial info and personally identifiable info. Take the extra step to ensure your customers know about it too. The news media have made us all very aware that hackers and viruses and scammers prowl the Web. A little logo from your security provider can go a long way to making people feel more comfortable about typing in their credit card number.

5. Background - Everybody likes a good origin story. Overall, these efforts to enhance your ecommerce site boil down to establishing trust, and it's much easier to trust someone when you know something about them. Contact information, of course, is important. It shows buyers that you're willing to be accountable if there are problems, to be responsive if there are questions. But even more, you can start to build a relationship with your customers by sharing your goals and values. And this feel-good isn't merely a feel-good; once again the Nielsen Norman Group provides research data to explain value-additive About Us pages.

If you're saying to yourself, "This could take some work," you're right. Going beyond the minimum ecommerce site requires more than the minimal effort. But it's a way to distinguish your small company from others. It's an investment in your growth.

To assist in this effort, aACE has built connections to major ecommerce services, including WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and Amazon. With our integrations, online transactions can funnel almost immediately to warehouse, then send an update as quickly as the order is fulfilled. Contact us today to learn more.

The correct answer from your employees should be, "We are."

This answer is the one recommended by Guy Nirpaz, author of Farm Don't Hunt: The Definitive Guide to Customer Success. In his book and on his blog, Guy elaborates on the vital shift from "customer management" to "customer success."

Pop Quiz II: What's the difference?

While customer management today typically hinges on CRM tools, the customer success paradigm focuses on attitudes of the people in your company. It's true that a high-quality CRM package can present customer data to everyone on your team. But if each team member isn't invested in a customer success mindset, data won't help much.

Another distinction of this new paradigm is the primary concern with what happens after the purchase. Are customers able to use what they bought? Are they getting a good ROI on their investment? These are the kinds of questions a customer success team attends to.

Pop Quiz III: Who needs a customer success team?

Yep--another trick question. The answer: you already have one. Each employee on your payroll will ideally recognize that they are part of the customer success team. They each have an important impact on customer experiences with your company. Guy Nirpaz points out that this attitude requires some adjustment from the default division-of-labor we usually rely on. Rather than a specialized team that is assigned all the customer support efforts, each group should contribute. It's still true that your people in the front office, in the warehouse, and on the plant floor all have unique talents and responsibilities. But if people assume customer success falls only to an official Customer Success Team, things aren't going to work as well.

Pop Quiz IV: Who's customer service are you competing with?

One implication of e-commerce on the World Wide Web is that users compare their experience with your company to every other online shopping experience they have. You might not be in direct competition with Amazon, Walmart, or Macy's, but these companies set a standard for customer experience. So when people do business with you, they're evaluating you based on expectations set by other companies. Your organization's customer success mindset is one way you can stand out from the crowd.

Leadership in your company needs to establish a culture that promotes a customer-centric organization. Having this as your mission, with clear values and accountabilities for this goal, is becoming essential in our digitalized economy.

To help you maximize the effectiveness of your customer success efforts, you also need a CRM solution that provides quote-to-cash visibility, plus automation tools to increase your business velocity: aACE 5.

On Feb. 23, Avalara is hosting a free webinar about sales tax on drop shipping regulations.

Drop shipping can be fantastic for your inventory and warehouse, but a headache for calculating sales taxes. To clarify the rules and regulations, Marilyn Wethekam, J.D., LL.M. will discuss the most common concerns. Ms. Wethekam's extensive experience and unique presentation can help you unravel the puzzle and avoid the headache.

Note: Attendance at the webinar is limited. Register today to be sure you don't miss out on this vital information.