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Thanks to the Internet and other new technologies which have made starting and owning a business easier, there is much more competition in nearly every industry, today. Often what will set certain businesses apart from others is superior customer service.

One way to dramatically improve your customer service is by investing in good business software, like OnSite 7. Software suites like OnSite 7, in addition to growing other areas of your company, allow for better customer relationship management, with all of a customer’s information being stored in one place, and better data-gathering ability. Often suites will come with specific customer relationship management software to grow this area, in particular.

Not only will you no longer lose customer information, since the computer stores it all together for you, but you will also be able to keep much more information, with greater ease than before. This will enable future contact with the customer to be personalized, and both of your experiences will be more positive.

More Reasons Customers Will Pay More

In a blog post last week, we detailed research that indicates customers are willing to pay more for a product or service if they receive better, more convenient service, and if your product or service is slightly better than those offered by your competitors. Here are a few more reasons why you should be spending more money developing your products and services, and charging your customers more, as opposed to focusing on decreasing the cost to your clients.

• Consider the cost of ownership for your product or service. If you are offering software solutions for business, apparel ERP, or digital printing software, and your customers have to pay for updates every month, they are going to quickly become frustrated and switch to a more expensive system where the updates are included. Having to pay for updates constantly is like paying to stay in an expensive hotel room, and then being charged $15 for the water bottle in the mini bar — it’s annoying and feels cheap. Charge more, up front, so your customers have less frustration, down the road — and they will be happier.

• Make sure your customer service is incredibly friendly. Many people like Apple, over Windows, simply because they can take their broken iPhone to any Apple store and walk out with a replacement an hour later. They are willing to pay more for the customer service and convenience.

• Build a personal relationship with customers, whenever possible, even if that relationship only lasts for the duration of the transaction. People are more likely to pay more to purchase something from someone they like and with whom they feel a connection.

With improving technology, there are more reasons than ever to use business software. Here are five ways that business software can help improve the efficiency of your operation:

• Since this type of software is web-based, your employees and clients simply need a computer with Internet access. This means that it can be accessed from home or even another country.

• Since this software holds all of a client’s information in one place, it’s easier to turn leads into sales. Each time a quote is generated, a file is created with that customer’s information to make follow-up calls easier.

• All of your information, documents, invoices, quotes, timesheets, projects, calendars and more are stored in one place.

• Managers can track projects by logging onto the software, meaning fewer missed deadlines and emails.

• Workers who are working from home or another location can log the time worked by simply logging onto the business management software application.

Learn about the benefits of Business Software Solutions.

In the last blog, we discussed five reasons for using business software, including convenience for employees working from home and consolidation of documents. Here are five more reasons:

1. Large numbers of people can be logged on to business software at the same time, meaning it can benefit any size business, from a small hometown company to a fortune 500 corporation.

2. The software tracks customers’ purchasing habits and anticipates their future choices, giving them better personal service.

3. You no longer need multiple software applications since one company can do it all. This means you not only improve your business, but you save money compared to past practices while doing it.

4. You or your employees can share documents without having to attach them to emails. Having one copy of everything largely cuts down on confusion and the potential for mistakes.

5. Since the software is easy to use, you don’t need to spend large amounts of time retraining your employees.

IRS Tax Advice for Small Businesses: Part II

We gave several IRS tax tips for small businesses in our last blog, including limiting and double-checking deductions, using the accounting and information services in your software solutions for business and an onsite system to keep track of your accounts throughout the year, and having a CPA look over your return before you submit it. Here are a few more tips before April 15th arrives:

• One common tax mistake made by small businesses is failing to pay payroll taxes. These taxes are made up of contributions, including the employer’s half of social security and Medicare taxes, which are due on a monthly basis. Business owners with cash flow issues often use these funds to carry them over from month to month, and then find themselves facing tax day thousands short with extra penalties for missing their monthly payments. Even if you are short on cash, make sure you resist the temptation to use those funds, and stay on top of your payroll taxes.
• Some small business owners attempt to avoid these pesky payroll taxes by classifying workers as independent contractors, which is above board if they really are independent. More often than not, though, this is a misclassification that can cost thousands of dollars, should the IRS decide to pay a visit and check on this classification.
• If you pay workers or vendors in cash, you also may be in for an audit. Paying in checks or automatic transfers leaves a paper trail that can be verified, but paying in cash leaves an opportunity for tax fraud by underreporting employee wages. Make sure you have a strong paper trail for every money transaction you take part in.

IRS Tax Advice for Small Businesses

Tax day is quickly approaching once again, meaning you are probably in the middle of tax return calculations, deductions, exemptions, employee forms, and more. You are also probably wondering how to make this process easier for next year. Here are a few tax tips every small business should be aware of:

Small Business Tax Tips:

• Everyone wants to save as much as possible in tax deductions so they owe the government less. If you report too many deductions, however, you will likely trigger an IRS audit. Also, small businesses are chosen for audits almost twice as often as individuals, since there are more likely to be errors made in the complicated returns, and there is more money to be made. Some helpful small business tax advice is to make sure you are extra careful when it comes to deductions, as these will be the first things checked when an IRS agent goes over your return.

• Your on-premises software and software solutions for business should have information services such as accounting software built in. Make sure you use these functions throughout the year so that your accounts are in order come tax day. These services help reduce human error and ensure all your numbers are crunched correctly. You also may want to hire a CPA or other tax attorney to go over your return and deductions before you submit it on April 15th, to make sure everything is in line. You have enough on your plate without having to worry about being the only one catching errors and keeping an audit at bay.

Click here for more helpful tax tips for business.

ShopWorks offers a multitude of tools for those wishing either to become familiar with OnSite before purchasing, or for those who are looking to learn how to better use their OnSite Suite. If you already own the software, look at the more than 60 hours of training videos that are available or the in-person classes. If you are currently evaluating whether the software is right for your company, though, the Webinars are what you are looking for.

Most Webinars are live, but many recorded webinars are also available to better fit your schedule, and they cover a wide range of topics. For example, one is titled Business Software for Digital Printers and demonstrates the OnSite 7 features that have been specially designed for companies that sell or produce digitally printed products. Another is Production Touch Screen Interfaces, which helps demonstrate how your production staff can work with the OnSite system with touch monitors and more.

Browse the upcoming and recorded corporate software training Webinars here.

Many software solutions for businesses, like Apparel ERP and Sign business software, allow you to decide whether you want to store your system onsite, or offsite in the cloud. There are benefits to both, but research suggests that cloud storage is ultimately safer, as all of your business details, contracts and records are not stored in one place where they can all be corrupted or stolen in one fell swoop. Although it may seem harder to trust something you can’t physically see, the cloud is just as real as your own server, and provides greater security, due to theft prevention and redundant back-ups.

The cloud uses reliable servers and an extensive backup system that allows a secondary server and further backup servers to take over, should the primary server fail. The redundancy means your data is safe and constantly available.

You also need to consider the interval at which you back up your data. Many companies do this once every 24 hours, but others do it less often, or more often, depending on the amount of data that is regularly generated. You can speak to a storage expert at ShopWorx for help deciding what would be most beneficial for your company.

You should receive a service level agreement, including a list of promises, from your cloud provider that includes performance and back up procedure. These terms should also include who will be able to access your data and the notification procedure that is in place if your data should be lost or become unsecured.

The holidays are a particularly busy time for businesses, meaning your employees may be slightly more likely to make errors when interacting with your onsite software. One way to avoid this extra trouble is by giving your staff a little extra training. With the help of pre-recorded or live webinars, on-premises training and other training opportunities, we can keep your software solutions for business running smoothly this winter season. Here are a few of the pre-recorded webinars that are currently available on our ShopWorks website this holiday season. Choose one or multiple depending on your needs.

• Managing Your Art Department: This webinar is meant for businesses with Apparel ERP and similar decorated, custom apparel needs. It helps you and your staff learn how to better manage your art department and how to use your OnSite 7 system to make everything go a little bit smoother. The webinar covers design management in OnSite 7, the best physical practices for storing digital art and files, and successful customer proofing of art.

• Production Control: This webinar includes tips and guides on how to create a smoother workflow in your office. It covers production calendar and scheduling, capturing labor costs, touchscreen interfaces for your production floor, and recoding job completion and details. This webinar is perfect for businesses in all aspects of the decorated apparel and promotional project industries. For everything from physical storage of files, art and information, to how to use your system to better support your business and your archives, we recommend this webinar.

In November, 2016, ShopWorks enhanced OnSite Business Management Software, an all-in-one software solution to manage every aspect of a screen printing, awards, and custom apparel business, and ProofStuff, online art proofing and approval software.  The recommendations for these improvements came from many of the nearly 700 customers who use ShopWorks Software to make managing and growing their business easier than ever.

OnSite Business Management Software 8.3 Key Release Features:

New CRM Features

The release includes completely new CRM features making it easy to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, providing new lead scoring capabilities to help prioritize leads, and enabling sales to funnel management and reporting. These features help sales team managers and business owner better manage their sales pipeline and forecasts.

Improved Data Management Capabilities

The OnSite 8.3 release also included a new duplication checker to reduce or eliminate duplicate records, improving data quality. The improved data import wizard makes importing data easier and faster.

New Accounting Functionality

Additionally, the accounting module was updated to include a new debit & credit wizard, making it easy to balance accounting transactions. New bulk invoicing with the option for multiple invoices on a single PDF sheet makes invoicing much faster.

The release includes a host of other enhancements, such as improved PromoStores integration with OnSite, time card history, and much more.

New ProofStuff Release Features and Enhancements:

ProofStuff, the leading online proofing and approval system for screen printers, decorated apparel and promotional products companies got even better. The ProofStuff release includes a streamlined user interface, new features allowing for bulk art proofs and document approval, and digital signatures. Never has sending, signing, and approving art and other documents been easier for you or your customers.

Interested in Learning More?

Learn how ShopWorks Software can make your entire shop run better. It’s all-in-one software to run every aspect of your business from sales & marketing to production to finance & accounting.

Contact us or call us at 800-526-6702.

ShopWorks Customers

To view videos and other educational material on the OnSite 8.3 and ProofStuff Release, login ShopWorks Central.