Various Reviews | Finch Sells

Small Business, Big Vision Review

Sep 13 2011

As a regular contributor over at Young Entrepreneur, I had heard about the brothers Adam and Matthew Toren long before a pre-release copy of their book Small Business, Big Vision landed on my desk.

Young Entrepreneur is a portal offering advice, tips, and some crucial direction to entrepreneurs both new and experienced. It’s a great resource that supports the most vital seeds of any economy – those passionate and driven individuals with ideas to build something big.

The brothers behind the site have now penned a book, which I think is going to make a very timely read for individuals with entrepreneurial blood running through the veins. It will particularly help those of you who have thought about making the jump in to a small business, but haven’t yet mustered the courage to tear through so many unknowns.

Small Business, Big Vision is very much a book for the twenty first century entrepreneur. It melds together practical advice covering the creation of your business plan, attracting investors, outsourcing vs. employing and some key tips for using social media.

The pages are littered with perspective from entrepreneurs that you will likely be familiar with. Guys like Mike Michalowicz, the famous Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, Brent Oxley, who founded HostGator in his dorm, and Gary Vaynerchuk who is present just about bloody everywhere.

As a guy who makes his living solely online, the book resonates with me. I get the sense the authors are fighting back the temptation to scream that entrepreneurs have never had it so easy. And it’s true, we haven’t.

Since the rise of the Internet, the economy has shifted towards the web in such a way that there are opportunities for everyone. Forming a small business used to be about racking up the courage to go public with a bold idea, often in your local town or bravely on a national level. The web has made it possible to hide behind a screen and still reel in the dollar bills. There’s less risk of personal embarrassment, and much less start-up cost attached.

The book slants heavily towards this modern breed of online entrepreneur. While I’m sure the brothers have widened their goalposts in an attempt to make it relevant to all entrepreneurs, there’s definitely a strong spotlight placed on how multimillion enterprises can be formed from your bedroom if you have the vision.

As an online entrepreneur, that’s just what I like to hear.

However, striking the balance between appeasing this generation of Internet entrepreneurs, and opening up opportunities for those who aren’t so web-savvy is always going to be a stern task in book form.

If you’re the kind of entrepreneur who’s seeking guidance on how to find the right solutions for a brick and mortar business, a lot of the information packed in to these pages may not strike you as directly relevant to your needs. Most of the spotlighted entrepreneurs have stumbled across their success using the web as their main medium, rather than an optional market for growth.

Small Business, Big Vision is extremely well written and cuts like a knife through subjects that are notorious minefields to even think about it. The process of obtaining investment is very well addressed and you will likely exit the chapter with a greater deal of clarity than you started.

It also swiftly addresses the pros and cons of outsourcing for anybody caught between two minds. To take on staff or to send my expectations, hopes and dreams to a polite sounding chap in the Phillipines? It’s a tough one, but again, the Toren brothers have laid out both sides of the argument very objectively. They repeat this throughout the book across a variety of common issues for entrepreneurs, including the dreaded realisation that you need to make changes for your business to survive.

If I could advocate one feeling that you’re likely to take from the book, it would have to be clarity.

Clarity plus the jealous motivation of hearing what so many other successful entrepreneurs have done to grow their millions. It’s an intoxicating combination and a real kick up the arse if you’ve been waiting flat-footed for your big break to arrive.

You can find more information about Small Business, Big Vision on the book’s website, or go ahead and order your copy from Amazon when it’s released on September 13th (My blurry calendar tells me that the 13th is today, go fetch!).

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My Experience With Crunch Accounting So Far

Jul 26 2011

The single weakest area of my business prior to joining Crunch Accounting was unquestionably my ability to handle taxes.

If I could show you my hairline before and after tax crept in to my life, you’d appreciate just how integral it’s role has become as the chief tormentor of my business.

There are Republicans in the world who dread tax less than I, and that is saying something. That is really really saying something.

Anyway, political bumberclarting aside, what are the factors that convinced me to invest in an online accounting service?

Lost sleep, notepads full of calculations and four muddled bank accounts – these were just some of the symptoms that finally drove me in to the loving arms of Crunch Accounting. I considered us somewhat of a forced marriage, but one worth consummating for the good of my sanity.

I’ve had the best part of a year to weigh up the benefits of using their service, so here are my two cents for anybody else who is interested.

Note: This is only going to be relevant if you run a business in the UK. Crunch has yet to expand in to Europe or across the pond. Understandable, right? Who would want to vacate the lovely sunny landscapes of East Sussex during a fantastic English summer? Besides fucking everybody, of course…

Crunch is an online accounting service that handles all your paperwork and tax filing. It has a very sleek interface, allowing you to add expenses and invoices on the move. You can get a running total of what you’re due to be raped for in corporate tax, what you can afford to pay yourself in dividends, and all the cretins that currently owe you money.

For a monthly subscription of £70, you can avoid hiring an accountant (who would probably run the risk of contracting Herpes if forced to do the books in your cheesy wotsit contaminated basement/office).

Instead of having that personal accountant, Crunch supplies you with a qualified account manager who you can call, email or badger over Skype.

You may have to book in an appointment first, but hey, it’s probably more reliable than calling a part-time accountant. You know you’re not going to end up redirected to voicemail while the bastard enjoys his impromptu two week vacation in the Bahamas. Oh that vacation, the one he didn’t tell you about.

It took me several days to transition my accounts to Crunch’s system. If you’re firing your accountant during the middle of the year (always better to be an arsehole before Christmas), expect to spend a good few days loading invoices and expenses in to the system.

Crunch glosses over the process and makes the system as user-friendly as can be, but let’s face it, this shit is never going to be Friday night entertainment. Adding expenses is a pleasantly brainless experience, and that’s exactly how I like my accounting to be.

You can reconcile accounts automatically by feeding a spreadsheet of your bank statement and letting Crunch go fishing for correct matches. This thought would usually fill me with dread. The last thing I want is for some crazed machine to start reconciling thousands of payments with 85% accuracy, but it seems to be effective.

I personally have to reconcile statements manually because my bank (If you can honestly call yourself a bank, Santander) is a cock.

All in all, Crunch has gone to painstaking measures to ensure the online software is user-friendly, intuitive and easy for a tax-hater like me to get to grips with.

So what would I like to see improved?

The single biggest beef I have with Crunch is their non-support for foreign currency invoicing. It’s possible (and convenient) to invoice companies in Sterling from within the control panel, but the system will have a bitch fit if you dare to bill companies in anything other than GBP.

That’s bloody inconvenient for me, given how a large number of my invoices are actually in USD or Euros. However, you can work around the kinks by entering a quick invoice in GBP after the hard copy has been processed by your bank. It’s not a perfect solution but it will do for now. I hope you’re listening, Crunch!

A year in to our relationship together, and I would have to say, the marriage is still going strong.

Crunch has saved me a lot of time, not to mention the sleepless nights, by simply providing a qualified barrier between myself and the dreaded tax man.

They deal with my paperwork. I deal with the playfully coloured forms and buttons. This is how business should be.

You… smart. Me… colourful buttons.

I think we’re gonna do just fine together.

Click here if you want to try Crunch Accounting for yourself.

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