A David Creation

I did a presentation a few months back at a NARI meeting about SEO, Blogging and Social Media, and most of the group had the “deer in the headlight look” when I asked them if they knew much about Facebook and online marketing. But, I’m quite surprised when I see a contractor who does not have a Facebook page whether they use it or even know what it is or does!

So, why my blog post title? When your employee comes to you and says, “Hey boss. We need a Facebook page. We are so early 2000ish!” Don’t just say, “Go for it…sign up…get it done!” Be a little more cautious. What I’ve discovered is if an employee is going to have access to your company Facebook and then gets fired, quits or is laid off, you will have a very hard time figuring out how to login when you are ready to begin using Facebook for marketing. I recently spoke to a painter who asked for my help marketing on Facebook, and we were unable to get into their Facebook login page. In this case, they had hired an outside company to sign them up for Facebook. That is even worst. Because they cancelled services, the company would NOT release the login information. So now this paint company has a live company Facebook page with no access!  Another large paint company recently laid off an admin assistant who had signed them up for email marketing services on iContact. When I tried to access the site, I could not. No one in the company knew the password, so we had to start from scratch!

The bottom line is this: if you decide to have a marketing company or an employee sign you up for Facebook,  any online program/campaign or even create your website, make sure you are the Administrator and know all the passwords. The email addresses should be yours, not your employees. Also, read the fine print if you are dealing with an outside company.

I’ve been on the hunt for a number of years for the “perfect” Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program for painting contractors primarily and remodelers. My goal was to find a program that was easy to use, affordable, accessible anywhere and mobile. A lot of programs claim to have all these features, but I have still yet to find the perfect program. Most of the CRM programs I’ve tested out lack good mobile capability at this point, but every few months I see better upgrades. Below I will list the top programs I have found for contractors and a few notes to why I like them and or what they lack. I will focus primarily on “cloud” (online) CRMs and not as much on the desktop versions.

Note: This post is for those who already have a knowledge of what a CRM does. If you are not familiar with a CRM, just contact me!

Top CRMs for Contractors (1-10)

1. ACT! by Sage (Desktop): ACT! is probably the most recognized CRM for contractors on the market. It can do just about anything. It is a stand alone program with 3rd party integration for mobile phones. ACT! is fully customizable for your business, but it can be a very expensive process to purchase the program, get it setup, and oh yeah…learn how to use it. The pricing is per user with a minimum amount. Approximate cost for a small company of 5-6 employees minimum of $1800 plus training. ACT! is not a cloud-based program, but it can be accessed through a remote sharing program. I’ve heard it is a little slow and not as stable. So ACT! continues to be desktop based, and I hope someday consumers can choose ACT! for desktop or in the clouds.

2. Salesforce (Cloud): Salesforce is the leading CRM program for all sizes businesses. For the contractor, the price is expensive if you want all the features you get with ACT! A good starter package is $25 per user/month. To me this is very expensive if you have an office staff of 5 people. I’ve also discovered that the best package that has all the proper reporting features is $65 per user/month. This is the reason I don’t recommend Salesforce all that much, because in a few months, you could have purchased ACT! for the same price. Salesforce needs a contractor version that is affordable. If you only have 1-2 employees, this might be an option, especially if you want mobile capability. You can download a native iPhone App for Salesforce, and it works great. The only downside I’ve seen with the mobile Salesforce App is the reminders for Events and Task are not an option at this time. As I said, every program has it’s weakness. I use reminders and emails all the time so I don’t miss appointments. All in all, Salesforce is powerful, easy to use and customizable.

3. Zoho CRM (Cloud): Zoho CRM is a direct competitor of Salesforce. You get almost the same features with Zoho but for a lot less. A typical contractor with all the features of Zoho CRM would probably spend around $20-25 a month compared to the full $65 a month Salesforce program. If you are a small shop, you can use more than enough features of Zoho CRM for around $5 a month per user and be quite happy. Zoho just released an iPhone browser-based CRM, which also works pretty well. If you wanted to have a very inexpensive CRM program and have some decent mobile capabilities, you’ll like Zoho. It really is going to be a threat to Salesforce…especially when they release their native apps. The native app is coming to the iPhone soon. I’ve used Zoho quite a bit and really like a lot of the features. It lacks good integration with Google Apps but does work ok with Outlook syncing. One other neat feature is it integrates with Quickbooks and Gmail for Google Apps. The calendar is not good! I use Google Calendar instead.

4. Sugar CRM (Cloud) Sugar is similar to Salesforce and Zoho. They do pretty much the same thing. The pricing is less than Salesforce but more than Zoho. If you decide to try out Sugar, I’d wait a few more weeks til Sugar 6 hits the market. Sugar 6 is suppose to come with some amazing upgrades including some mobile native Apps: primarily the iPhone again. (Sorry Blackberry and Droid). By the way, iPhone apps are easy to create, which is why they come out first. Droid is now second but catching up. Blackberry phones are for corporate America. Don’t buy one now that you have Apple and Android devices.

5. Prophet (Desktop): Most contractors are use to using Outlook for their emails, contacts and calendars. If you want to stay with Outlook and you don’t need a lot of mobile capabilities, Prophet is perfect. It embeds itself right into your existing Outlook program. Prophet is a full CRM program. It is not as “pretty” as ACT! or Salesforce, but it does the same things. Because Prophet is a desktop-based software it has an upfront cost similar to ACT! Their training and support over at Avidian Prophet is excellent.

A few other CRM programs that are large, yet I have not spend time sampling them: Maximum CRM, Microsoft Dynamics, Landslide and Oracle. All large CRMs and similar in price to ACT!

Lighter CRMs

All the light CRM programs I’ve tried are well designed and easy to use. I liked them all! They all just lack two way integration on mobile devices. The big fish still win on having most features. If you are not real technical or have the time to learn all the features of a full-blown CRM, start with one of these programs. They are all quite refreshing and simple.

1. Tactile CRM (Cloud and Google Marketplace): Tactile CRM is a very simple CRM. It manages contacts, opportunities, task list and runs reports. It is well designed and straight-forward. To be honest, the only negative I had with this program is the lack of Mobile integration. Tactile CRM told me they are finished making an iPhone App and just need to get approval from Apple. This native App will have the same functions as the online version and will have a 2-way sync. One of the best things about Tactile is the price too! It is around $10 a user per month. If they don’t charge more for the iPhone App, I’d suggest most painters and small contractors give this CRM a try. I’ve spoken to many contractors who never use all the functions in the big programs like ACT! So start with Tactile. It does a lot, and if you want more…move to the big fish.

2. Highrise CRM (Cloud): Highrise is more of a Contact Manager than it is a full CRM. Highrise is great for managing leads, customers and small projects. It does not have a calendar program. To use a calendar program, you need to purchase a subscription to it’s sister Backback (a 37signal product). I’ve used Backpack, and it is nice if you are by a computer all day. The mobile syncing is not good and does not come close to Outlook or Google Calendars. Backpack is meant for sales people that sit at a desk. I use Highrise for a couple of things: tasked (that are emailed to me, yeah) and managing customer information. I love the new iPhone App too. I’m always typing in to-do items, which are then synced to Highrise and emailed to me when the items are due. Downside to Highrise? It lacks a great calendar feature and a full mobile version for the calendar! If it had a calendar, it would be my number one pick!

3. Capsule CRM (Cloud and on Google Marketplace) Capsule is similar to Tactile. It works well. I remember liking the calendar feature better on Tactile, but again, Capsule is one of my favorite light CRMs too. This, like Tactile, lacks a good integration with the mobile devices.

4. Pipeline Deals CRM (Cloud): I enjoyed trying out Pipeline. It has a mobile browser-base program which is nice, but lacks the 2 way integration to mobile devices.

So there you have it. I’m keeping my eye on Sugar 6 and Zoho at the moment for the full CRM programs and Tactile for the little guys. I’m happy using Google Apps, and iPhone, Basecamp and Highrise for now. If you need future assistance, let me know.

I recently received an invite to an interactive, online Stationary program. It is pretty nifty and called Paperless Post. The program is easy to use to send custom stationary online, instead of printing and mailing it. Although I still prefer the Old Fashion approach at times, Paperless Post is a good alternative if you are trying to save on postage. The cost to design and send a custom letter in a virtual envelope starts at about $.06. As best as I can figure out, it would cost closer to $.25 if you wanted your company logo sent and a custom envelope look. So, Paperless Post can get pricey if you don’t look carefully at the bottom line price per piece. No matter what you do, it is cheaper than the US mail.

Play around with the Paperless Post program. The first few letters you send are free of charge. It can add a nice personal touch at the end of a project: something different than an e-Card or letter in the mail.

I’d highly recommend two great online programs: Freshbooks and Quickbooks Online.

Invoicing Made Easy

Freshbooks is the easiest invoicing system in the world. There is nothing that comes close to this program. Stop looking for another option and try Freshbooks. It is incredible. A number of my painting clients want to switch but can’t because they use Quickbooks (which I’ll talk about in a minute). Why do they want to switch so bad? Because it is “Invoicing Made Easy!”

Freshbooks offers the following great features for a small service business: Basic Customer Database, Create & Send Estimates, Invoices, Expenses, Run Simple Accounting Reports: Balance Sheets and P&L, Track Time and Bill Clients and Accept Online Payments. Why is it easy? You don’t have to open an email program or attach anything. Everything is done within Freshbooks.

How Does Freshbooks Work

First, you type in a client’s contact information. Second, you create a new estimate. A contractor can have a template for his/her services along with prices. Once you create the estimate, it gives you a couple of options. You can send as a PDF by email, email it through Freshbooks (recommended) or USPS using Freshbooks to do the sending (envelope, stamped and mailed). Once the client views the estimate, he can either comment on changes he’d like to make or click “Accept Estimate.” Freshbooks then converts it right into an Invoice for you to approve and send your client. The client then has the option to mail a check or click “Pay Online.” If they select to pay by Credit Card, you will receive a confirmation once the transaction goes through and Freshbooks will mark the “invoice” as paid!

I use Freshbooks for my entire accounting system as I don’t have employees. So I use the “expense” tap to keep track of all my expenses, which are imported using my bank and Expensify. I then email my report to my account during tax season. Give Freshbooks a Try! You’ll love it!

Quickbooks Online

Quickbooks is the leader in small business accounting software. A couple of years ago, they created Quickbooks Online (QBO). It was not until the last year that QBO became a viable option for service companies. This is because Intuit made some pretty substantial upgrades to the online program and enticing low monthly cost. One of the best things about Quickbooks Online is that everything is “in the clouds.” You don’t have to purchase QB upgrades each year. Instead you just have one low monthly bill: typically $25-35 a month. This is worth it, because it includes technical support.

QBO is a full accounting system: invoicing, job tracking, budgeting, estimates, automatic bank reconciliation and much much more. I’ve heard from a few accountants that they are not ready to switch to QBO because it is still a smaller version of the PC software “Quickbooks Pro.” So, talk to your accountant and see if it will do what you want. I tried it out for a month or two, and all though it was too big for my company, it was pretty easy to use.

Now, if you are a contractor, what program is right for you? In most cases, I’d suggest Quickbooks Online, but do talk to your Accountant. Some accountants don’t like QB online because it lacks a few key features such as good Payroll and Job Costing. Freshbooks, even though it will do estimates and basic expenses, Quickbooks really has a lot more features. Freshbooks also does not claim to be an accounting program. It specializes in invoicing. It also integrates with a lot of 3rd party online programs, and I hope someday it will integrate with Quickbooks. Right now, Quickbooks Online will do everything Freshbooks can do. The difference is that QBO is not as fun to use as Freshbooks, it does not have a company branded website (Freshbooks does) and Quickbooks only allows for emailing or mailing invoices: in other words, a client can’t accept estimates and invoices through Quickbooks Online. So for now, contractors, use Quickbooks…and if you have another $25-30 extra a month, use Freshbooks! Freshbooks is really geared toward the freelance and very small business owners such as a web designer, marketing guy like me or even an online retailer.

If you have further questions, let me know.