Get-Things-Done in Sales with Twitter-like OnePage CRM

In our advisory services for micro-businesses (0-9 employees) we often advise clients to take a good look at OnePage CRM  in their need for a non-accounting-integrated CRM solution. Mindful of that we took interest in following interview.  Jorge Soto for Sales4Startups writes: Interviewee: Michael FitzGerald, Founder and CEO at Dublin-based OnePage CRM. I had heard a lot of positive things about Michael’s product, checked it out, and decided to reach out for a conversation. I was super impressed by his perspective on product design and the mission behind OnePage CRM.

Jorge: What was the motivation behind building OnePageCRM and what’s the long term vision for the product?

Michael: I needed a CRM for my increasingly busy business – but to my surprise all the CRMs I looked at were “dead databases” that just stored information. Nothing built-in to help me sell more and more effectively.They were trying to be attractive by having fancy funnel charts and graphs. This is fine for viewing results but not for getting results.

Being a GTD person, I came up with the idea to apply the principles of GTD to sales. And the result was OnePageCRM. A system focused on the Next Action of each prospect, to get them over the line.

Jorge: What is OnePageCRM and what’s it’s unique position in the market?

Michael: OnePageCRM is a mix of Twitter and GTD (Getting things done) where your prospects float to the top of what we call your Action Stream (like your Twitter feed). Each contact or organization (floating to the top) displays prominently the Next Action needed to move the sale forward.

After the action is completed, the user is pushed to think what is the Next Action and when. It then moves down the stream and floats to the top over time – ultimately trapping your prospects in a perpetual loop of actions until the sale is achieved.

Nothing compares to this approach in closing more deals.

Jorge: Is OnePageCRM focused on the SMB market or are you serving the enterprise market as well?

Michael: The SMB market. Even though we have some enterprises using it for Lead Qualification.

Jorge: What do you believe is the future of CRM?

Michael: On tablets. More intelligence-based automation. And fully integrated with other business processes.

Jorge: What is your opinion on Salesforce.com buying RelateIQ and how will this effect the market?

Michael: Not all Salesforce acquisitions are a perfect marriage. Look at Radian6. Because of “market position and product bloat” Salesforce will become the database. Which is not a bad position for them either, but a sticky and expensive one for customers.

Jorge: What 3 tips would you give an entrepreneur when planning on launching a b2b startup?

Michael: Get into the hands of the customer as soon as you can, and iterate (MVP) Be prepared to upset some (early) customers, to gain more in the long run (Pivot) Eat customer service books like Zappos Delivering Happiness and Crowning the Customer

Jorge: How is the Irish start-up market today and what are your favorite Irish startups (aside of OnePageCRM)?

Michael: I think we have a healthy scene. The funding/advisor ecosystem could be better, but we have a really good government agency called Enterprise Ireland that fills this void until the flywheel turns n its own. I’m involved in startupgalway.org. Favourite start-ups are Exordo, Clouddock, Zartis, Intercom and Element Wave.

Jorge: How did you get into startups and what were you doing before launching OnePageCRM?

Michael: I was running a successful client services business building apps and eComm systems for our customers.

Jorge: Anything else you’d like to share with our readers about OnePageCRM?

Michael: Yes, we’d love to show you what we built!

Intuit takes the accounting software market, and Xero, head on with SMB study

Peter Dinham for IT Wire writes: The major new player in the Australian accounting software market, giant US firm Intuit – makers of Quickbooks - has upped the ante in its quest for marketshare and customer acquisition, with a direct hit on competitor Xero.

Casting aside the market ‘noise’ from the likes of the New Zealand-based Xero, Intuit has gone straight to its primary target market for accounting software, the small business sector, and asked it to compare their first-time use of Quickbooks and Xero’s suite of accounting solutions.

In what Intuit Australia Managing Director Nicolette Maury says was an exercise aimed at getting above all that market noise and ignoring the comments from competitors, the company commissioned an independent research firm to ask 134 small business operators who had never used either product before to give them feedback on their first-time experience.

“As the world’s number one accounting software provider for SMBs we are a ‘challenger brand’ in Australia and we wanted to focus on what we knew about our prospective customers and really gather some impartial feedback on what prospects thought of the different products that are in the market right now,” Maury explains.

“And that basically proved what we hoped and expected,  that Quickbooks comes out on top (ahead of Xero) when it comes to some of the basic business critical tasks that small businesses need to do in the accounting software space.

And, Maury is quick to trot out the key results of the research study to back up the apparent SMB preferences for Quickbooks over the Xero solution, including that eight out of 10 who tried both QuickBooks Online and Xero said it is easy to use QuickBooks Online compared to five out of 10 for Xero.

According to Maury, the results of the research study -  available here  -  show that ease of use and the ability to complete tasks quickly and with confidence are key to QuickBooks Online's status as the “option that Australian small businesses prefer.” [snip]  The article continues, click here to go to IT Wire and continue reading....

Five Basic Tax Tips about Hobbies

Millions of people enjoy hobbies that are also a source of income. Some examples include stamp and coin collecting, craft making, and horsemanship.

You must report on your tax return the income you earn from a hobby. The rules for how you report the income and expenses depend on whether the activity is a hobby or a business. There are special rules and limits for deductions you can claim for a hobby. Here are five tax tips you should know about hobbies:

1. Is it a Business or a Hobby?  A key feature of a business is that you do it to make a profit. You often engage in a hobby for sport or recreation, not to make a profit. You should consider nine factors when you determine whether your activity is a hobby. Make sure to base your determination on all the facts and circumstances of your situation. For more about ‘not-for-profit’ rules see Publication 535, Business Expenses.

2. Allowable Hobby Deductions.  Within certain limits, you can usually deduct ordinary and necessary hobby expenses. An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted for the activity. A necessary expense is one that is appropriate for the activity.

3. Limits on Hobby Expenses.  Generally, you can only deduct your hobby expenses up to the amount of hobby income. If your hobby expenses are more than your hobby income, you have a loss from the activity. You can’t deduct the loss from your other income.

4. How to Deduct Hobby Expenses.  You must itemize deductions on your tax return in order to deduct hobby expenses. Your expenses may fall into three types of deductions, and special rules apply to each type. See of Publication 535 for the rules about how you claim them on Schedule A, Itemized Deductions.

5. Use IRS Free File.  Hobby rules can be complex and IRS Free File can make filing your tax return easier. IRS Free File is available until Oct. 15. If you make $58,000 or less, you can use brand-name tax software. If you earn more, you can use Free File Fillable Forms, an electronic version of IRS paper forms. Free File is available only through the IRS.gov website.

For more on these rules see Publication 535. You can get it on IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).

Additional IRS Resources:

• Business or Hobby? Answer Has Implications for Deductions
• Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income
• Publication 529, Miscellaneous Deductions
• Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax
• IRC Section 183: Activities Not Engaged in For Profit (Audit Technique Guide) – details on the factors to determine ‘for profit’ or ‘not-for-profit’

BRAD SMITH D, CEO, Pres and Director of Intuit Inc. Sells $1,891,629 Worth of INTU

InsiderTradingWire.com writes:  On 08/05/14, BRAD SMITH D,CEO, Pres and Director reported a net SELL trade of INTU with a net transaction amount of $1,891,629. Net non-zero shares traded: 23481. See below for more information on Intuit Inc. with symbol INTU traded on the NasdaqNM. Original SEC Filing Period of Report: 2014-08-01

iMarketReports.com writes: SOURCE: Form 4 ISSUER: INTUIT INC SYMBOL: INTU FILER: SMITH BRAD D TITLE: Chief Executive Officer DATE TRANSACTION SHARES PRICE VALUE 8/1/14 Exercise 45,000 $0.00 N/A 8/1/14 Surrender* 23,481 $80.56 $1,891,629 NET ACQUIRED 21,519 OWNERSHIP: 251,578 (Direct) * – Insiders can surrender shares back to the company to pay taxes or cover the cost of an option exercise. The Form 4 is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by insiders to report transactions in their companies’ shares. Open market purchases and sales must be reported within two business days of the transaction.

Quickbooks And Xero Are In A Running Street Fight Over Australia's $1 Billion Accountancy Software Market

Chris Pash for  Business Insider Australia writes: There’s a war being waged over Australia’s small businesses.

The prize is a market where 70% of Australians with a business are using an accountancy software package.

It is valued, according to analysts IBISworld, at more than $1 billion, and there are more than 2 million small businesses.

Intuit, the maker of the popular accountancy package for small businesses Quickbooks, sees itself as the underdog in the Australian market.

Ignore the fact that Intuit has been around for three decades. The American group hasn’t actually had a presence in Australia before now.

Intuit sold its famous Quickbooks via local player Reckon. Now the relationship has ended, and that its software is run in the cloud rather from a disk loaded to a PC, Intuit has what it calls a startup operation in Australia.

Reckon did about $80 million in revenue in 2013. It’s not known how much of that was the Quickbooks business but in the financial year ended it increased sales to $98 million by using its own cloud-based software, Reckon One.

MYOB, another player, is estimated to have revenue of $130 million.

Intuit’s share isn’t known but the stakes are high.

In the first public salvo aimed at Xero, the accounting software company which started in New Zealand and is now rapidly growing in Australia, Intuit setup a special website and released details of a survey comparing QuickBooks Online vs Xero.

The survey, according to Intuit, shows that twice as many preferred QuickBooks Online over Xero.

And it quotes Richard McNair, office manager at Bellson Electric in Carringbah NSW, saying that QuickBooks Online is his pick over Xero.

“Xero was a bit confusing for a first time user,” he says. “With QuickBooks Online it was quick and easy to get started. I had no problems. I was completely confident with completing key tasks. I had a ‘wow’ moment when invoicing with QuickBooks Online – it was so much easier than I thought, so simple and quick.”

Intuit’s managing director for Australia is Nicolette Maury, a former ebay executive, who started in February.

She’s got a team of 30 in a serviced office and is on the hunt for something more permanent.

“We’re busting out of our walls and looking for some permanent space,” she says. “We’re experiencing explosive growth in Australia.”

Maury says Intuit is playing the challenger role really, making some noise in the market and putting some facts on the table.

“Being new to the market, we’re spend a lot of our time watching what our customers do and getting those deep customer insights which make our product better,” she says.

“We’re the young upstart, the newcomer to the market.”

“That’s the beauty of being a brand new business here. We’re developing our own design of what we want to be.”

Does that mean Intuit is cool like other startups?

“We are really focused more on understanding our customers deeply and build great products for them rather than going out and wearing cool t-shirts,” she says. “But I will always sport a cool t-shirt if you give me a t-shirt.”

Xero says it’s hard to remove bias from a survey commissioned by a vendor and a sample set of 134 people is hardly significant.

“We’ll let our 120,000+ Australian (and growing fast) small business customers do the talking,” Xero said in a statement.

Xero does $1 billion in payroll in Australia each month.

And Xero is growing fast. It just posted $70.1 million in operating revenue for the 2014 financial year, up from $39 million in FY2013.

Making The Best Of A Capital Loss

Steve Lewis for Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams / ORBA writes: Depending on whether you have a "glass half empty" or "glass half full" mindset, you might consider incurring a capital loss to be an unfortunate part of investing or an opportunity to lower tax liability and reposition your portfolio, respectively. While no investor wishes to experience a capital loss, being able to save some taxes can ease the sting.

On the Bright Side

A capital loss occurs when you sell a security for less than your "basis," generally the original purchase price. You can use capital losses to offset any capital gains you realize in that same tax year, even if one is short term and the other is long term.

When your capital losses exceed your capital gains, you can use up to $3,000 of the excess to offset wages, interest and other ordinary income ($1,500 for married people filing separately) and carry the remainder forward to future years until it is used up.

In with the New, Out with the Old

Years ago, investors realized it was often beneficial to sell a security to recognize a capital loss for a given tax year and then — if they still liked the security's prospects — buy it back immediately. To counter this strategy, Congress imposed the wash sale rule, which disallows losses in situations where an investor sells a security and then buys the same or a "substantially identical" security within 30 days of the sale, before or after.

Waiting 30 days to repurchase a security you have sold might be fine in some situations, but there may be times when you would rather not be forced to sit on the sidelines for a month. Likewise, you might hesitate to double up on a position in which you have a loss and then wait 31 days to sell the original stake — a strategy that also avoids a wash sale violation because the purchase occurs more than 30 days before the sale.

Fortunately, there may be another alternative. With a little research, you might be able to identify a security you like just as well as, or better than, the old one. Let us assume you own stock in a networking equipment company that has lost value since you purchased it. After researching the industry, you discover that the company's chief competitor is more attractively valued and has better growth prospects.

Your solution is now simple and straightforward — you simultaneously sell the stock you own at a loss and buy the competitor's stock, thereby avoiding violation of the "same or substantially identical" provision of the wash sale rule. In the process, you have added to your portfolio a stock you believe has more potential or less risk.

The same strategy can be applied to mutual funds. In that case, your advisor can help you identify a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund with a similar investment sector, strategy and size.

Advantageous Times

If you purchased shares of a security at different times, give some thought to which lot can be sold most advantageously. The IRS allows investors to choose among several methods of designating lots when selling securities, and those methods sometimes produce radically different results.

If you are buying mutual funds, it pays to know when the next capital gains distribution will occur and how large it will be. If the distribution is sufficiently large and the date is imminent (they often occur in December), you might want to delay your purchase to avoid incurring a sizable tax liability. At the same time, bear in mind that prior dividends paid and reinvested in mutual funds you own were taxed, and therefore increase your tax basis in the fund.

Seek Professional Advice

Given the volatile financial markets of the past few years, investors know that sometimes they must sell securities that are worth less than when they purchased them. If you incur a capital loss, discuss your options to use it to reduce your taxes and reposition your portfolio with your advisor.