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Web-based appointment systems such as Schedulicity and Genbook, online storage and file-sharing like Dropbox and SugarSync, and automated marketing systems from iContact, Constant Contact and MailChimp are helping even new sole proprietorships look like well-established companies.
Both Schedulicity and Genbook – as well as others like Skedge.Me -- are focusing on helping small service providers fill their appointment calendars. Hair stylists, plumbers, mortgage brokers, massage therapists, tutors and house cleaners pay $19 to $39 per month to open a virtual around-the-clock datebook for customers. Instead of hiring secretaries to field calls asking about openings in the schedule, business owners instead can let customers go online to click on the time that works best for them.
“We took a big fancy enterprise-level application that sells for thousands of dollars per month and we squished it all down into a simple package that’s easy to manage,” says David Galvan, vice president of business development at Schedulicity. “Merchants wake up each morning and they find their calendar is full. It boggles their mind.” He calls the buying patterns “impulse service purchases” because over 60 percent of appointments booked online are done after-hours when the business is closed.
For businesses where information is key, online services like SugarSync and DropBox mean that up-to-date forms, proposals, estimates, or presentations are readily available. While businesspeople previously carried such files on USB flash drives, they could never be certain that they had the most recent versions. Now online storage, particularly services with built-in synchronization such as SugarSync, keep documents updated on the fly.
And for small business owners who never got into the data backup habit, having critical documents available online also means automatically preserving key data in the event of a computer failure back at the office.
The final piece of the IT puzzle for small businesses usually requires some kind of digital newsletter or email marketing campaign. That daunting task, once the province only of large enterprises, now is offered by a dozen different online providers, of which Constant Contact and iContact are among the largest.
Users can choose from a variety of templates to create an email campaign targeted at specific recipient lists or a company’s entire contact list. Using analytical tools, businesses can see which emails were opened and whether those customers took any action as a result. Services like Constant Contact also are adding features like event and meeting digital management to avoid inundating company inboxes with RSVPs.
Constant Contact customer Tammy Rosen, founder and CEO of Fur-Get Me Not pet services in Arlington, Virginia, said automated online marketing is efficient in more ways than one. “Using Constant Contact has probably saved me from having to hire a new person,” she says.
[Image credit: vagawi]