The PocketSuite Blog

Throughout the pristine halls and offices of Silicon Valley, the debate rages on about the shuttering of popular home cleaning service startup, HomeJoy, which over the last 3 years raised $40 Million and created jobs for 1,500+ cleaners.

At the heart of this debate is a fundamental question about what kind of world you want to live in?  Do you want to have to go through a handful of homogenous, global corporations for all services with no control over who walks into your home and life and the quality of work they provide?

Or do you want to live in a world where we can choose from and develop personal relationships with diverse, vibrant, and capable local entrepreneurs who have the tools to provide high quality, competitively priced, on demand services for as long as we need?

HomeJoy View of the World

Companies like HomeJoy, Handy, TaskRabbit, and many others are marketplaces that typically focus on acquiring lots of customers with slick advertising and convenient apps, which then enables them to recruit and dictate pricing and terms to service providers.  When marketplaces work well, they fulfill the exciting promise of giving everyone the opportunity to live like a millionaire with access to affordable, on demand services, ranging from private car service and food delivery to personal training and home cleaning.

However, when they don’t work, as was the case with HomeJoy, they drive down prices so low that they cannot effectively recruit enough professional service providers to fulfill market demand. And overtime, they are unable to maintain the quality and consistency of service delivery, which leads to the loss of customers.

Is that the kind of world you want to live in? Price clearly matters, but are you willing to squeeze independent professionals so much that they lose their “joy” and can no longer afford to deliver good service?

PocketSuite View of the World

In this post-HomeJoy reality, consumers can get the same convenient “tap and go” services that they have come to expect while working with trusted, reasonably priced professional service providers. Rather than work with HomeJoy marketplaces, there are thousands of service providers across the country who are choosing to use smart, mobile apps like PocketSuite to deliver delightful experiences to their customers.

PocketSuite is a mobile app that enables consumers to schedule appointments and pay everyone from their dog walkers, photographers, hair stylists, and fitness trainers to landscapers, handymen, home cleaners, and more. Unlike HomeJoy, PocketSuite is focused on empowering freelancers and solopreneurs to do their best work for customers while ensuring they can grow their business and serve those same customers and more in the future.

Over 5,000 providers, including 500 home cleaners are using PocketSuite to schedule customers, send invoices, and get paid. Given how easy it is to manage their business using PocketSuite, many business users have expanded their customer base, geographic service areas, and hired more employees. As an example, one of PocketSuite’s users, a San Francisco-based home cleaning business called Adriana’s House Cleaning, has suddenly grown so unexpectedly fast, that the small company raised financing in 2015, and is now in the process of expanding to serve customers outside the Bay Area.  

When asked - Why PocketSuite? “It’s so easy and convenient! PocketSuite has completely transformed my business and my relationship with my customers. All my appointments sync with my calendar, my customers receive reminders, and I get paid immediately when the jobs are done,” says Eduardo Neto, owner of Adriana’s House Cleaning. “I don’t have to spend time sending quotes, updating schedules, and chasing down payment. So, I can spend more time making sure my customers are happy.”

A New Norm

It is absolutely clear that the on demand economy is here to stay. And in the wake HomeJoy’s failure, smart business apps like PocketSuite are bridging an important gap for home cleaning entrepreneurs and many others who want to live in a world where they can maintain their independence while affordably, consistently, and scalably delivering quality services to customers.

Happy trainer, happy dog.

For dog trainers who want to organize their business and secure their paycheck, PocketSuite is now live to help keep you happy. PocketSuite is the first business management app of its kind enabling dog trainers to keep all their appointments, payments, and client information in one place.

Dog trainers have been using PocketSuite to schedule appointments directly with clients anytime, anywhere. You can send appointment confirmations to any client directly from within the app (via text message or email), include details of each appointment (i.e., service, date/time, duration, location, etc.), and of course the price of each job – asking your client to conveniently confirm each appointment with a credit or debit card ahead of time in a secure browser…in literally seconds.  

Once confirmed, your session’s payment is locked in and the upcoming appointment immediately syncs to your calendar (to iCal, to Google Calendar, and to your built-in PocketSuite calendar). Set up auto-reminders for 24 or 48 hours ahead of each appointment, and take notes in PocketSuite ahead of time on each client (or dog) to easily reference during or after the training session.

As soon as the session is done, tap Complete on the appointment in PocketSuite, and your client’s card will be charged immediately for the agreed upon confirmed price. All client payments are immediately direct deposited into the bank account linked to your debit card on file in the app. And the fee? Just 1.99%. So no need for all that expensive payment swiping or PayPal’ing.

Do you have a website? Or Facebook page? Well with each PocketSuite account comes your very own scheduling widget, which integrates directly onto your website or Facebook page. Clients will be able to browse your services, your availability and send you requests directly online. All requests stream directly to PocketSuite in real-time, allowing you to respond to every single client request at the drop of a hat.

PocketSuite is completely free to download on the App Store, with no monthly fees, or hidden fees, or transaction limits.

PocketSuite just integrated Apple Pay!

This means the 50M micro service enterprises in the US today can now accept payment with Apple Pay using PocketSuite - the world’s first enterprise resource planning solution designed for micro enterprises. Using PocketSuite, invoices sent to clients can be paid securely and future jobs requested by clients can now be confirmed in advance with the privacy and convenience of Apple Pay.

Since Apple Pay’s public launch in 2014, consumers and retailers have been flocking to adopt this new technology with over 1.6% of digital retail sales market share in just 4 months. With growing NFC smartphone adoption and a 2015 deadline for retailers to support NFC or face liability for fraudulent transactions, mobile payment volume is expected to grow 172% annually over the next 5 years. Apple Pay is poised to lead the way given the iPhone’s enormous market share, Apple’s brand equity amongst consumers and Apple Pay’s powerful support from the banks and credit card processors.

We built PocketSuite to give micro enterprise owners the fastest, most convenient and most professional way to get paid for the services they offer. Apple Pay’s major selling points  – convenience, ease-of-use & privacy – align perfectly with our values at PocketSuite and the needs of our customers. We are committed to bringing Apple Pay to the rapidly growing independent service market widely known as the “on-demand service economy” which has been underserved by the enterprise software industry until now. This market accounts for over $1 trillion in business activity each year, and is the fastest growing part of the U.S. workforce.

Our mission is to help micropreneurs operate a business on their terms using the latest technology. Hundreds of micropreneurs (i.e., house cleaners, photographers, therapists and dog trainers) use PocketSuite every day to manage their business and get paid. To learn more about PocketSuite and the Apple Pay integration, check out the PocketSuite app for free on the App Store. Or email the founders of PocketSuite at [email protected].

For service professionals, the core elements to running a successful independent business include:

(1) Scheduling appointments

(2) Communicating with clients

(3) Getting paid for your work

These are all crucial components to building a sustainable business. But if we want to drill down to the most important part of any business, let’s be honest…

Everyone likes getting paid.

For independent professionals and freelancers, however, the path to getting paid can be time-consuming and bumpy.

Many professionals, for example, still use software that requires them to invoice clients, which takes days if not weeks to collect what you’re owed. Others bypass invoicing and stick to a pay-in-person strategy, however these business owners are exposed to last minute cancellation and no-show risk for the entire time leading up to the actual job appointment. The savvy professionals secure their customer payments upfront to protect them from questionable clients, however antiquated software forces professionals to pay an arm and a leg for this “payment security” peace of mind.

The independent professional market is one of the fastest growing parts of the U.S. economy, yet the way these professionals get paid remains stuck in the 90s.

Invoicing Software

A customer booking is only half the battle – payment for service rendered is what professionals care most about. Invoicing has historically been the “professional” way to collect payment from customers. There are various invoicing software applications out there like Invoice ASAP and Freshbooks for small businesses. These run professionals anywhere from $15-20 per month, yet don’t protect them in any way. That is to say, customers can still be delinquent or slow to pay invoices, and the business is still exposed to cancellations and no-shows. Not to mention, times are changing, and these days clients don’t need to see formal invoices in front of them to determine whether or not a business is “professional”.

Payment Processing

“E-payment is the future!” says companies like PayPal and Square. They are right in that e-payments allow you to bypass trips to and from the bank and keep your wallet lighter (no cash!). However, for professionals who perform jobs and services for their clients, the e-payment process does not provide much protection in getting paid. Business owners are still exposed to cancellations and clients flaking out on appointments. Have you ever heard a customer say after a job is done – “Sure, I’ll just send you a PayPal later”. How much time do you spend after that following up with them to remind them? Or how about ones you never hear from again? And of course just like any electronic payment process, there’s a per transaction fee ranging between 2-4%.

Payment Security

What professional doesn’t like knowing that their payment is secure before accepting a job? Historically, simple merchant accounts (like Merchant Warehouse or Authorize.net) have been the way to go allowing professionals to collect client credit card details upfront, then charging the customer immediately after the job is complete. Professionals are not only protected from last minute cancellations (enforcing cancellation policies), but can also rid themselves of the extra step that invoicing adds, saving them time and reducing the risk of non- or slow-paying customers. One downside to this is the additional burden of having to securely store the customer’s credit card information for later processing which requires expertise in payment data security that most businesses cannot afford in-house.

At a minimum, however, business owners are spending $20 per month for merchant processor accounts, assuming they hit the minimum accepted volume requirements. There are other fees baked into these merchant accounts (depending on who you use) such as setup fees, gateway fees, statement fees, etc. Then of course there is a per transaction processing fee ranging from 2-4% per transaction.

Payment Option Landscape for Professionals

Put Money Back in Your Pocket while Securing Your Paycheck

Payment technology for service professionals and independent business owners is continuing to innovate. The key is to make sure you know your options, you know what software will work for your business, and you know where you can easily save money.

Mobile messaging is exploding everywhere as the newest form of communication for consumers. It’s quick, it’s easy, and you get notified immediately when a new message is received. Sharing attachments and photos is even as easy as a simple click of a button.

Companies innovating in the communication technology field have been big men on campus over the past year. From failed $3 billion bids of the likes of Snapchat, to successful mobile deals like the $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition — mobile communication is the future and companies are starting to make big bets.

So why have small businesses been slow to adapt to this explosive industry growth? Mobile messaging has historically had a stigma of being “informal” and in traditional SMS your client messages are mixed in amongst communication with friends and family creating unwarranted search work.

But times are changing for professionals. Mobile communication technologies are starting to improve, giving mobile messaging a professional feel, and organizing your client communication in a safe and separate location. BCG even touts that 22% of small businesses are using mobile apps to conduct business, up from 8% just 3 years prior.

Invoicing was born out of the need for larger companies to have flexibility when dealing with inflows and outflows of cash from various sources. Accounts payable allows companies the time to bring in cash from customers and evaluate which bills should be paid in what order.

Small businesses adopted these standards so as to emulate their bigger and more established competition. “Hey I’m a small business, but I conduct my operations just like the big guys!” Small business care with big business mindset.

This “invoicing standard”, however, has also spilled over to independent professionals and freelancers. But why? Most service professionals are dealing face-to-face with clients at lower price points that can be paid on the spot (and even upfront!).

Times are changing and so is technology. Service professionals should not be stuck in the old ways of tradition. About 50%* of most service professional clients are new customers (the rest recurring) — and without any type of relationship, who knows which clients will pay the bills on time (or at all!). Business owners should have some sort of upfront payment security going into each job.

But to be fair, the same argument can be made for the client. If, for example, the business asks for the client’s credit card to put on file upfront, how does the client know that he/she is protected? The client goes from full flexibility with invoicing, to zero control with the credit card in the hands of the service professional before any work is done.

The answer is: there needs to be a happy medium.

Time is money, and for the service professionals doing multiple jobs a day, they need to ensure someone is taking care of payment. As for the clients, they might not want to hand over their credit card to an unknown business, but to a verified and independent 3rd party, that makes sense.

“Invoicing” is a business term of the past and leaves the independent professional completely unprotected. In this day and age, there should be a trusted technology that meets business and client in the middle — payment is guaranteed if and when service is delivered. End of story.

Most business owners know PayPal for Business – the most well-known electronic payment system for small businesses (“SMBs”) and professionals. But it’s 2014 and there is literally a laundry list of e-payment processors from which to choose.

But besides point-of-sale (“POS”) technology, what value do these companies provide for the small business owner who holds each client payment as sacred?

When a business owner agrees to perform a job for a client, problems arise around payment, that traditional POS systems don’t solve…

Payment Guarantee: When a job or service is performed, the business expects (and deserves) to get paid, but there’s unfortunately no guarantee. Non-paying clients and even no-shows are exempt from POS software “value-add”. The PayPals and Squares of the world can process the payment, but they can’t guarantee it upfront.

Unpaid Bills: The number of jobs and clients a business can see in a week can be in the dozens. Thus, the amount of money the business is owed increases accordingly. POS tracks the payers, but the non-payers can slip through the cracks, and it can cost the SMB or freelancer tens of millions of dollars. This necessitates more software to keep track of unpaid bills and outstanding invoices.

Immediate Cash: When a customer pays a business in cash, the service professional can spend that income immediately. But when a business receives a payment electronically, it can take anywhere from 3 to 30 days to either receive or withdraw that hard-earned money. Is that the best businesses can get?  

No one likes a no-show.

Service providers these days are constantly on-the-go, going from appointment to appointment following a strict schedule. So when a client simply doesn’t answer the door, or when you get a last-minute “Sorry — have to cancel!” text, that messes with your entire schedule and drives up your opportunity cost. You lost an opportunity to fill a timeslot with an actual revenue-generating job. That time is gone and you will never get it back.

It’s tough to gauge how much cleaners or handymen or dog trainers or others lose in revenue each year from clients who simply don’t show up or cancel 5 minutes beforehand. In the medical field, for example, some physicians claim upwards of $150,000 in lost revenue a year due to last minute cancellations.

And it’s not just money — it’s also time. Time spent on the phone with the client, exchanging emails, understanding the needs for the upcoming service. Your time is an investment, and that investment goes to zero if your customer doesn’t show up.

Now, there are influencers out there who dish out advice after advice as to how to “prevent” client cancellations, but a lot of that advice is put back on the professional, advising the business owner to spend more time vetting each customer.

The solution needs to be more of an insurance policy. Service providers need to be compensated for their time, and if the customer doesn’t show up, there needs to be a fair cancellation or no-show policy in effect.

We wrote this piece in May 2014, prior to Uber's recently announced $1.2BN round of funding. Nonetheless, our thoughts on how to build sustainable marketplace value...

Building Sustainable Marketplaces

The number of independent professionals has exploded in the last 5 years. By 2019 there are expected to be 50 million independent professionals in the US alone. More Americans are starting their own business partly due to a cultural shift – people in their 20s and 30s seeing their parents get laid off in 2008 and 2009, and realizing that you can’t rely on pensions, 401ks, or loyalty from large firms. However, much of this growth has also been fueled by new online marketplaces that have enabled them to market their services to new clients over the Internet at an unprecedented scale.

As these marketplaces have developed in the small business service sector, a discrepancy has formed in the value propositions experienced by the market participants. When I say marketplaces, I’m referring to the broad array of web or mobile platforms that combine clever algorithms with consumer marketing to aggregate and match up suppliers of services with buyers of said services.

Some marketplaces deliver value primarily to the demand-side of the market. The thinking here is that customer demand will attract suppliers to the market. Groupon, the pioneer in daily deal coupons, is a prime example of a successful demand-side marketplace with a simple customer pitch: get 50% off any service you want. They were one of the fastest growing tech companies of all-time.

In contrast, some marketplaces take a more balanced approach in delivering value. Uber, a leader in the transportation-as-a-service space, is a prime example of a successful dual-sided marketplace. They offer drivers more passengers at market rates and offer consumers convenient taxis. Other marketplace platforms are focused primarily on the supply side of the market. NetSuite is a prime example offering an e-commerce platform that lets their existing customers sell their products to shoppers online from their integrated back office system.

Using Groupon and Uber as case studies, we will compare and contrast the performance of these marketplace models with respect to how value is created and sustained for both the supply and demand sides of the market. We hope to offer some insight to marketplace analysts and investors.

Single-Sided Market Model

Most people have heard of Groupon – a pioneer in the daily deal industry. The company’s value proposition to customers is clear and immediate: save money. Buy a groupon and you get an immediate 50% discount on any service – a massage, a haircut, a dinner, etc. There is also no limit to the number of groupons you can buy so the long-term value is also clear.

On the business side, Groupon’s pitch is – we’ll get you lots of new customers if you discount your services. Groupon saw significant growth in its early stages as businesses were able to give clients the heavy discounts they wanted while filling some capacity with new clients at around 25% of what they would normally charge. The long term value proposition to businesses required a leap of faith that these new customers would later become repeat customers paying full price for the services.

Dual-Sided Market Model

Uber is the most popular transportation app on the market today. For customers, the app lets you pick the type of car you want. Next you’re picked up and driven to your location by a friendly driver with the payment processed automatically. The customer value is clear: convenience.

For the business, Uber lets drivers check in, receive nearby taxi requests, and not have to worry about credit card processing or disputes with unruly customers. Driver hours are flexible and they have full control over who they pick up because client ratings are made available to the driver. Finally, you get rewarded for providing great service in the form of customer reviews and ratings. The business value is also clear: increased earnings, flexible schedules, and a safer working environment.

Revolt of the Underserved Market Player

After researching the financials and talking to participants for both marketplace models, we noticed a recurring theme with the single-sided marketplace model as they grew over time.

It turns out that the underserved side of the market begins to churn after a period of time. With Groupon, many small businesses would use Groupon for 6-12 months and look back to see what their return on investment was. That is to say, how much revenue and margin did the business give up through discounts, compared to how many new and recurring clients the business gained. What we found was that most of the business owners we spoke to had decided that Groupon’s economics did not make sense for them – although discounted service offerings bore them short-term volume lifts, these new customers did not convert into recurring customers. The leap of faith that was required of them did not pan out after all.

We also discovered that over time clients were motivated by price and less so by quality of service. Unfortunately, focusing on short-term surges in these types of customers reduces the resources businesses have to spend on more profitable clients. Fewer than 2% of Groupon buyers became repeat customers. With fewer repeat customers, these businesses were not able to accurately predict future cash flows which impaired their ability to operate profitably.

Note that this sequence of events usually does not happen overnight. It takes time for the underserved side of the marketplace to observe then respond to the unsustainable marketplace dynamics. Aggressive sales tactics, marketing and the size of the market (millions of small businesses in the US alone) further mask the churn rate for businesses because the new signup rate often exceeds it in the beginning. Groupon for example has cycled through over 650K merchants with a churn rate (90%) that requires them to replace their entire supplier base frequently.

Fair and Steady Wins the Game

The growth trajectory and churn rate for dual-sided marketplaces are noticeably different from the single-sided marketplace. Using Uber as our example, once an Uber driver, immediately you can fill your unutilized capacity with passengers at your normal rates, and over time you can build your reputation as a service provider. Drivers are not required to take a huge leap of faith before joining. Most people don’t realize that Groupon is only 4 months older than Uber. In the last 5 years, Groupon saw its valuation skyrocket to almost $18 billion (in November 2011). The company was one of the first big tech IPO’s after the great recession, fueled entirely by its frenetic growth rate and media hype. With the market now corrected, Groupon is valued at $4.9 billion. Revenue has begun to slow (2013 revenue growth of 10%, vs. 45% in 2012), and operating margins have compressed to 2.9% in 2013 compared to 4.3% in 2012 (its first year of positive operating income).

Uber, on the other hand, has seen slower but steadier growth. In 2013, it was leaked that Uber was valued at $3.5 billion in its most recent round of financing. That’s a steady climb and right on the heels of Groupon’s $4.9 billion value. The trends suggest it is only a matter of time before Uber eclipses Groupon in revenue, operating income, and market valuation.  

This chart illustrates the dynamics of both marketplace models. Single-sided lend themselves to high-growth rates but can be unsustainable. Dual-sided tend to exhibit slower but steadier growth.

Take Care of Both Sides, Everyone Wins

Groupon, the most successful single-sided marketplace focused on customer aggregation and transaction volume and experienced high initial growth. The marketplace growth model was built around the idea that where customers went, vendors would follow. Uber, one of the most successful dual-sided marketplaces grew at a much slower pace while delivering equitable value to both sides.

In conclusion, we believe it is the responsibility of the marketplace to ensure that both sides of the market can operate within the marketplace sustainably. We readily acknowledge that without buyers there is no market. However if 90% of the sellers churn then the entire market suffers. We believe that the best way to build a marketplace is to focus on delivering sustainable value to both sides of the market. Better marketplaces lead to more productive exchanges between people which leads to a more connected and productive society.

- Text work done

This article was originally posted on Medium.

Imagine if a hotel chain used one system for taking reservations online and another for taking reservations over the phone? With two different systems for booking rooms, what would prevent a room from being double or even triple-booked? This is exactly the type of problem ERP solves for companies by unifying all their key operations (web, call center) on a single database.

Cash, resources, and clients are three assets that every successful business manages effectively. ERP is a type of software that helps companies manage these assets. The technology is designed to handle a myriad of functions (orders, project management, inventory, manufacturing, accounting, HR, supply chain) all unified in a single database. As such it is notoriously complex often requiring years to implement. Successful ERP implementations typically lead to increased visibility, lowered costs, and higher productivity for companies.

Unfortunately, these gains have eluded SMBs even though they are the most vulnerable to economic downturns, disruptive technologies, and shifts in the market. In this essay, I will explore the reasons behind this and provide an outlook for the future of Enterprise Resource Planning for SMBs.

The Enterprise (Fortune 500)

The two largest vendors in the enterprise space are SAP and Oracle. Their software costs millions of dollars to license and millions more to implement. Implementation takes 12-24 months involving armies of consultants who tailor the software for the business. The high cost is in part due to the scale of the problem: thousands of employees, interoperability with legacy IT systems, hundreds of locations often spanning multiple continents, dozens of departments each with their own internal processes. Unifying all of this in a single database requires extensive customization of already complex software and deployment of dedicated IT infrastructure.

The industry came of age in the early 90s as computers became commonplace on corporate desktops. Most companies realized that they needed greater visibility into their key business operations and data in order to compete in an information driven economy. Existing solutions were custom built, expensive to maintain, and slow-reacting to changing requirements. At the time, IT infrastructure was orders of magnitude less powerful and more expensive than today. As a result only fortune 500 companies and government agencies could afford to purchase these systems. 

This led to the industry coalescing around the needs of fortune 500 companies and laid the blueprint for most of the ERP system architectures in use today. They were built to work in company environments with complex workflows, sizable admin overhead, huge IT budgets, and corporate hierarchies with 10 or more levels. Even as these systems evolved to support customer facing functions like sales and support, the basic operating and sales model remained largely unchanged.

The Rise of Software-as-a-Service

Rising Internet adoption later paved the way for SaaS entrants like NetSuite and Workday. They reduced the costs of ERP by an order of magnitude making it more accessible to midsize companies. Typical implementations took 3-6 months with annual costs in the mid to high six-figures in dollars.

The cost savings were caused by two fundamental differences: 1) SaaS ERP is leased and paid for monthly or per use, and 2) SaaS ERP is delivered over the Internet in a web browser.

This meant zero upfront hardware expenditure, minimal upfront licensing costs, lowered risk to the customer, and shorter implementation times. Besides these differences, most SaaS ERP offerings function very much like scaled down versions of their enterprise counterparts for larger companies. Where they differ is in the scale of the implementations, the amount of customization required, and the magnitude of the reporting and compliance requirements.

Small Business Accounting

Small businesses make up 90% of US businesses and account for 70% of new job creation. When it comes to managing their cash, resource, and client assets, most rely on off-the-shelf accounting software. The leading software used today is Intuit Quickbooks, a favorite amongst accountants and bookkeepers. It handles basic accounting, invoicing, expense management, and payroll for small businesses. Several SaaS upstarts have emerged in recent years like Xero, Zoho, and Wave touting ease of use and online access as key benefits.

These applications are cheaper than SaaS ERP systems but require a background in basic bookkeeping. As a result data silos are formed between those with the requisite background and those without. Large companies have the resources and processes to synchronize and move business data across these silos. SMBs however have neither the resources nor processes to manage this so they either abandon the software or outsource its function to a 3rd party.

While these applications excel at producing business documents, they fall short as ERP systems for the day-to-day management of cash, resources, and clients. Ironically, the more features that are added as these systems evolve, the higher the proficiency level required to operate them, the wider the data silos become between users and non-users, the less suitable they become as ERP systems.

Small Business Accounting ≄ ERP

Large companies faced this vicious cycle in the 90s when most cobbled together in-house solutions to solve departmental problems. Over time they realized that their ability to deliver enterprise value was a function of the integrity and velocity of their key business data. The ones that had real-time visibility into this data could react to market shifts quicker than the ones that didn’t. This is why they have invested over 200 billion dollars  on ERP in the last 20 years and continue to do so today.

Why can’t SMBs adopt SaaS ERP from companies like NetSuite? The reasons are simple: they cost too much, provide more performance that the typical SMB requires, and incorporate more complexity than the typical SMB can manage. Again, it is important to note that these systems were designed for companies where strategic decisions are made two or more levels above where they are carried out. This influences everything from pricing, to their emphasis on reporting, to the amount of configuration required, to the way the software is sold. In a nutshell, the software is designed for larger companies with different organizational structures and day-to-day priorities.

I wrote an article recently on Quora arguing that upstarts to cloud incumbents like Salesforce and NetSuite faced an uphill battle if their primary selling point was better design. I argued that they needed to do 2 things in order to dislodge the incumbents: 1) gain a deeper understanding of the enterprise sales cycle, and 2) deliver order of magnitude performance gains in key business metrics. I proposed that a design led disruption would make more sense in the SMB market where the decision makers would be in a better position to benefit from an improved design or user experience.

ERP for the People

Two key prerequisites need to be met in order for ERP to gain broad SMB adoption: 1) it needs to deliver enterprise value using metrics that SMBs value (cash flow, new referrals), and 2) it needs to be designed for an organization with one or fewer hierarchy levels. Meeting both prerequisites would require a fundamental product bias towards task completion over report consumption, a complete integration of communication into the user experience, seamless data synchronization between users, and online (preferably mobile) access to core business data.

Several mobile ERP startups are re-thinking ERP for micro business. Delivered exclusively as mobile apps, they target micro service businesses that are mobile and conduct business primarily with individuals and other SMBs. I fundamentally believe that ERP for micro business has to be mobile for two reasons: 1) the business user is always in direct communication with clients and employees, and 2) the business user is often on the go needing access to their data.

These new mobile services let them publish their availability online and accept booking requests from customers. Upon delivery of service, the payment is processed and a review is sent to the business. Integrated with this core booking platform is the ability to exchange text messages and documents with customers and employees. Professional photographers, caterers, cleaners, handymen, landscapers, dog trainers, and other service businesses use these services to collect payment on time (cash), fill their availability pipeline (resources), and communicate with customers (clients).

An Outlook for SMBs

In conclusion, newer mobile service providers are providing a glimpse into the future of ERP for small businesses: easy to install, task oriented, no data silos, and communication built into the core. ERP technology has transformed the way companies operate and deliver value to stakeholders. The benefits enjoyed by these companies have largely eluded SMBs leaving them vulnerable to economic downturns and shifts in the market. Recent shifts in the technology landscape most notably the rise of SaaS and mobile, along with society’s changing views on long-term employment, have created an opportunity for ERP solutions to gain mass adoption with SMBs. I believe that the more productive small businesses become, the wealthier society will be as a whole.

-Text work done

I can sum up the new PocketSuite network-effect potential for professionals in one word: POWERFUL. The larger your network is, the bigger a following you have to broadcast announcements, reviews, advertising, etc., and the higher chance you’ll receive referrals from current clients recommending you to new clients.

The steps to building a powerful PocketSuite network are simple: (1) Set up your profile (2) Import your contacts (3) Bill a client (4) Get paid (5) Get reviewed

Actually, the only 2 steps you really need to put effort into are steps #1 and #2.

Set up your profile by adding a profile picture and filling out your bio. Add some personality to your bio, be short & sweet, and of course include your website if you want clients to read a bit more about you.

Then, the most important step of all: Import Your Contacts. The more people you’re connected to, the easier it will be for you to be to found when clients search for a professional to hire. Then, once you get hired by those clients, their friends will be notified, so the next time they look to hire a professional within the same industry, you’ll be their top choice. Get it?

Let’s recap just in case you missed it. Importing contacts and growing your network benefits professionals in the following awesome ways:

Direct contact with current clients & connections

Increased 2nd and 3rd degree connections with potential clients

Viral referral potential

Higher placement in search results

More reviews to attract

Larger audience to broadcast to and share reviews

In terms of reviews, clients are only allowed to review you once they have paid you. This ensures that no one gives you false or bogus reviews – neither competitors nor 3rd party firms looking to exploit small businesses. This preserves the integrity of your network and keeps out fictitious connections. We prompt clients to review professionals on a 5-star basis, as well as give descriptive feedback about their experiences.

As clients search for professionals to hire in their area, the most import statistics you (as a professional) can build are the numbers of your connections, bookings and reviews.

When we built PocketSuite, we wanted to make it easy for professionals to promote their businesses in a very simple, trustworthy and free way. Just set up your profile & connections, and simply conduct business as usual. Reviews will follow, and you’ll be able to leverage your current customers to win new clients – essentially you’re passing along your marketing strategy to your customers! How suite is that??

Our next PocketSuite update release will be within the coming week, and will have even more powerful tools to expand your reach to your network in terms of broadcasts and promotions. So stay tuned!

Let’s be honest here – Yelp is a hotly contested platform.

Yelp is a helpful platform for a certain percentage of the world. For some businesses (especially restaurants), there is little drama with respect to their Yelp reviews. Consumer experiences are enjoyable, reasonable ratings are written, and many businesses find Yelp a useful tool to help get discovered. The platform is free for users, and it’s one of the more popular options for consumers when it comes to finding restaurants, businesses and services.

However, for an increasing number of businesses and professionals, Yelp is laden with false reviews, arbitrary review selection, business exploitation allegations, skewed “elite” status benefits, various lawsuits, reviewer backlash, and other issues that are unfairly punitive to a large amount of small businesses in the U.S. So much so that Facebook pages (e.g., Businesses Against Yelp, Yelp is a Fraud, Yelp Extortion) and even websites (e.g., Yelp-sucks.com, YelpFiction.com, YelpLawsuit.com) have popped up in protest of the platform.

Now, there are a few platforms attempting to “fix” some of Yelp’s problem. Angie’s List, for example, tells businesses they will get “verified reviews” from actual paying customers, instead of an anyone-review-at-will type model. However, as the bulk of Angie’s List revenue comes from its businesses advertising themselves, it’s been said that only the businesses that pay to get promoted on Angie’s List, really see any reviews…severe conflict of interest, anyone?

The Next Generation ...

So, imagine if there was a Next-Gen platform where businesses could receive TRUSTWORTHY reviews and referrals from REAL customers.

Imagine...just TRY to imagine if there was a platform that had the following super amazing benefits for businesses & professionals:

1) Reviews written by real customers

How about a platform where customers can rate you only after they have paid you for services? No ad dollars being tossed around to prevent a conflict of interest. No 3rd party sketchy companies willing to write good or bad reviews for money. Think about how Uber does it – the customer books, pays, then reviews. These would all be real customers writing reviews on real business experiences.

2) Measurable referrals

Nowadays, even if you are getting good reviews on Yelp, how do you measure the effectiveness of these reviews in terms of getting new business? What about a platform where you could measure the booking of your business based on specific reviews? Imagine if you could determine if new business reservations & bookings came from certain reviews written by past customers. You can actually calculate the value of a review, and also thank (and even reward) customers that lead to new referrals!

3) Interactive & personal business profiles

Currently on Yelp and other sites, the only info available on you is simply your business name, some plain details about location and pricing/wi-fi/etc., and then reviews by a whole assortment of individuals (customers & non-customers, real & fake, paid & unpaid, etc.). How about a platform where you could write messages about your business mission, your professional goals, and even give your business a personality! Or even, how about a profile where YOU could post pictures, or company updates, or special coupons & offers to show to your current and prospective clients. FREE promotional options for professionals need to be born!

4) Easy way to engage with customers

Why don’t platforms these days allow you to connect to new customers, or how about just reaching out to current customers? What about a small business-oriented platform where you can make announcements or broadcasts to any and all interested customers? How about if businesses could find out what customers were booking similar professional services in their area, and then reach out to those folks directly with promotional deals or simply non-intrusive messages letting these consumers know that their business exists? Enough of just waiting around with your business being held prisoner to reviews.

5) Remove your business from the platform if needed

Currently you can’t remove a business on Yelp, even if you are target of fake, sketchy or scathing reviews. Enough of that! You don’t want to promote your business? Then fine, you shouldn’t have to be a part of any platform if you change your mind. It’s YOUR business…It’s YOUR profession…No one should force you to be exposed to false reviews for all to see.

We just launched v1.2 of PocketSuite and it is time to update everyone on what’s new in this release. Also we are going to start a tradition of blogging every time we launch a product update.

Build your Network - PocketSuite can now be used to find service professionals referred and recommended by your friends. Invite and connect with your friends on PocketSuite to increase the number of recommended photographers, DJs, dog trainers, etc.. in your network. Get notified when they join the network. We are bringing back the traditional and trusted way of finding referred professionals and making it fun, social, and mobile. Your dashboard now shows you everyone who’s either invited you to join PocketSuite or who you’ve invited to join PocketSuite. Add any service providers you want to book, pay, or refer to your friends and make sure you leave them a good review after you pay them. They will appreciate it!

Reviews - now when you make a payment in the app, you can rate the service and enter a short review of the service provider. If it makes sense (i.e. landscaper remodeled your yard) you can also take a picture and attach it to the review. Reviews are public and anyone connected to you or the service provider can read them. Only paying customers can review a service provider so make sure you book and pay them using PocketSuite otherwise you won't be able to leave a review.

"Smart" Service Provider Search - we search across all the nearby certified service providers in the PocketSuite community whenever you search for appointment availability. However, we crunch through all the signals in our system (real-time availability, pricing history, how long they have been in the system, how many transactions they have, how long it takes for them to respond, their review history, etc..) to rank the service providers. This saves you time and makes the selection process easier. We made this process even smarter in this release. Now we rank service providers you have rated in the past higher because generally speaking most people prefer to stick with the people they know and like. You can always specify a service provider to book directly in which case we only consider whether they are available for the times you want to book. Here comes the best part: we rank any service providers rated by your friends higher than service providers rated by complete strangers. As we learned in our recent blog post (http://bit.ly/1aPfnyu), most people trust reviews made by people they know more than reviews made from complete strangers. We believe a smart mobile app for delivering convenience to consumers and productivity to businesses should automate this process a little bit for everyone. 

Calendar Sync - we now automatically sync your PocketSuite appointments (bookings) with your local calendar. Any bookings created in PocketSuite will be added to a new calendar on your phone called “PocketSuite” and will appear on your calendar with the rest of your meetings and events. To enable this, simply grant PocketSuite access to your calendar when you’re prompted.

Cancel Appointments - you can now cancel any appointment in PocketSuite that hasn’t yet been billed. Once you cancel an appointment it will no longer appear in your calendar or on the dashboard.

Enhanced User Profile - we now allow everyone to enter a short bio or description of themselves which is publicly available. We also make it easy to explore who's connected to who. You can now go hunting through your friend's network to find the handyman they were referring to the other day who did such an amazing job repairing their kitchen sink. For increased transparency, you can also see the payment history and booking history for each person to get a sense of how much activity they've conducted on the system. The more activity they have the higher they will rank when you go searching in the app for a service provider. Finally we include the review history for everyone on their profile. These are public so you can read each and every review for that person. Note that only paid customers can leave reviews for them so these are definitely legit. 

Bug Fixes, Minor Enhancements - Thanks to several of our users for reporting these issues:

You can now send bills or payments with fractional dollar amounts (i.e. $105.88)

You can now zero out the total on an invoice and it will no longer show up on the dashboard

You can now tap to open links, email, and map addresses. This makes it easier to send links (i.e. Dropbox files, web pages) to other users and have them open them in PocketSuite.

Added confirmation to several screens: send payment, send bill, book client, and invite contacts

The booking rate field is now optional (this field is used to provide an estimate to clients who book you directly through the app)

The registration process has been simplified (bank and credit card setup moved out of registration)

We also updated our website for this release. We're excited about this release and we have a lot more surprises in the works that we will be announcing in the coming weeks so stay tuned.

The holy grail of every fortune 1000 CEO is the executive dashboard: a single view of all the key metrics used to run their company. We live in a post information age defined by an overabundance of data and information well beyond our capacity to digest much less act on it.

The executive dashboard is one solution to this problem. It is a summary view of the top 3 to 6 metrics for any given company. In addition to standard metrics like revenue and profit, most of the key metrics that show up on the executive dashboard are industry specific. 

Enterprise software companies for example care about their pipeline which is an estimate of future sales based on the number of deals in progress. Retailers care about their inventory turnover ratio which is a measure of how quickly it takes for them to sell out inventory. Airlines care about their average load factor which is a measure of the percentage of available seats that are filled during each flight. Consulting firms care about utilization which is the percentage of overall consultant hours that are billable to a client project.

Enterprise software companies like Oracle, SAP, and NetSuite provide executive dashboard capabilities for large and midsize companies as part of the enterprise resource planning systems they offer. Professional service firms and accounting software makers like Intuit provide similar capabilities for small businesses that can afford it. For the remaining 99% of the small business and freelance community, executive dashboards are a luxury they cannot afford.

Mobile professionals (independent business owners who spend more than 40% of their time away from their office) in particular have it hard because they’re required to make key decisions while on the go and away from their office or traditional sources of information. This is why we decided to build the world's first mobile executive dashboard here at PocketSuite.

The mobile executive dashboard today shows you how much money people owe you, how much money you’ve made, and how many upcoming appointments you have with clients. This is the cornerstone of the PocketSuite user experience bringing peace of mind, security, and control to freelancers and independent business owners on the go.

As a helpful overview for those looking to hire a plumber, a dog walker, a DJ, a caterer, or any other service provider, we took the liberty of laying out the most popular and helpful options available for consumers.

Now, there are pros and cons in all aspects of your search for the right service professional. Some are free, some are costly. Some are review-based, some are more broker-types. We (at PocketSuite) have our own biases, but we’ll leave it up to the consumer to choose what he/she prefers as the fun, easy and trustworthy way to find the right professional that fits his/her needs.

Free Directories / Search

Yellow Pages / SuperPages – The traditional and classic “Yellow Pages” model, but now online. These sites are simply listing sites, with very limited “ratings” systems. Not much more to say on these platforms, as Yellow Pages have been around for decades. Lacking the social aspect puts these platforms at a disadvantage, so much so that the Dex Media (which owns SuperPages) stock price (Nasdaq: DXM) has performed like the Yellow Pages…it’s disappearing…

Craigslist – You can hire, find, and buy pretty much anything and anyone on Craigslist. In terms of hiring “professionals”, it’s a great site for low-skilled labor on short notice. You can target location, job/gig type, and comb through many options available. Not to mention you can even create any type of task you want and put a price on it – a reverse search process. The downside with Craigslist is that you don’t quite know what type of person or product you’ll be getting. No real reviews or profiles or ratings or even a vetting process.

Paid Directories

Angie’s List – Angie’s List is a platform that allows users to access more “trusted reviews” of businesses, but in exchange charges a monthly (or annual) fee. These reviews are “trusted” because you have to provide your name and contact info when submitting a review, so in theory you get reviews from folks who have actually used the professionals. This is how they can charge people to use the platform. However, there is an enormous conflict of interest as those same providers getting “reviewed” are the ones paying money to advertise on Angie’s List. Hmm…

Consumer Review

Yelp – Yelp is free for both users and businesses, and is probably the most popular review website on the internet today. Anyone can post any reviews on any business and rate said business on a scale of 1-5 stars. The authenticity of Yelp reviews have also come under fire, so the rule of thumb is the more reviews the better in terms of gauging the accuracy of business reviews. You are trusting the masses to write an accurate depiction of a business, as opposed to a friend’s recommendation or review.

Social Media

Facebook – Ever heard of it? Facebook is great for questions and posts like “Anyone know a good plumber in the Mission of San Francisco?” Over the course of those next couple days you’ll get responses from friends you’re connected to – some you trust, some you don’t. This type of question is very popular, especially when traveling re places to eat and stay. The downside is Facebook isn’t meant to cater to people looking for service providers, so a lot of useful search/review/book/payment functionalities for consumers just aren’t there. Not to mention when you want to find a plumber to fix a leaking toilet, you don’t want to sit and wait for your friends to respond with a variety of options…you want that plumber NOW!

Twitter – Twitter is a great place to source any type of information about pretty much anything. That’s a vague description, but Twitter in itself is just an open platform for people to share information real-time. In terms of finding the right service pro, Twitter is a pretty useful platform to search for customer feedback and gauge sentiment on a professional or small business. You can also search “DJ” in the search bar, and comb through various tweets and DJ’s on twitter. The issue with Twitter is that there’s so much information on the platform, that you end up doing a lot of leg-work combing through people’s thoughts on various businesses, and then actively search out the contact info of said professionals.

MarketPlace Options

Elance / Thumbtack / etc. – These types of websites are similar in that they are designed to pole the client and ask what services he or she needs upfront, then match them up with the appropriate service provider or independent worker. The business models all differ a bit in terms of who they charge (i.e., some charge clients to post a job, others take a % of the business’s fee, or simply  a fee for lead generation), and also in terms the skillsets of the independent workers recommended (i.e, an experienced graphic designer vs. someone to purchase your groceries). This is a helpful tool, but you’re trusting each of these platforms to set you up with the “right” providers. Reviews and ratings simply aren’t a priority on these sites. Not to mention, most don’t have app versions, so you’re usually tied to your desk doing your search that could take 5-10 site pages of refining your search to finally get to a potential lead. And once you use a professional you like, you won’t go back to this marketplace process…You’ll simply call up that same professional directly for more work down the road.

Real-Time Booking, Payments, and Reviews Tied to Social Graph

PocketSuite – The PocketSuite app is new and free for all (both clients and businesses). It’s designed to take everything revolving around hiring a worker or freelancer (i.e., the discovery, booking, communication, payment, etc.) and make it easy and mobile. PocketSuite lets you search for business providers in the classical sense – you search based on businesses or professionals your friends have used and love. You can also search by proximity and availability as well (i.e., if you don’t have any friends). Then when you find your desired hire, you can book, communicate and then pay all via text. Don’t worry about carrying around cash or writing a check or managing papers & receipts. The PocketSuite app makes the process from initial discovery to payment trustworthy, fun and super easy.

The world of work is mobile

It is time for small business management software to catch up! Today's freelancers, independent business owners, and busy professionals rely on their smartphones to manage every other aspect of their life, but the tools to conduct business are complicated and stuck in the desktop computing era.

Smartphones in 2013 have more computing power than the Apollo spaceship that put the first man on the moon. And yet most people today still struggle with the same business tasks that their predecessors faced in the 70s: scheduling clients, managing who owes money and how much, collecting payments, and keeping accurate business records.

This is a real problem. This is why we created PocketSuite.

Why we created PocketSuite

At PocketSuite we think an entrepreneur’s time should be invested in providing excellent customer service. But if you’re like most independent business owners, far too much of your energy is gobbled up writing invoices, juggling the schedules of multiple subcontractors and chasing down payments.

Today’s small business accounting tools don’t make things any easier. While some are OK for businesses that need to record complex transactions, they are far too bulky for the needs of most small service providers--and were really designed for professional bookkeepers.

Creating records for yourself and your client should be the easy part.

Whether you’re a house cleaner, personal trainer, plumber or graphic designer, you need an invoicing and booking solution that’s as mobile as you are. We felt it was time for a new solution that keeps businesses on the same pages with their clients, subcontractors and employees. So we built one.

PocketSuite is a new iPhone app that is fast, easy to use, and lets you see all your upcoming appointments, payments owed, and income in one convenient dashboard. No more clunky software that ties you to your desk, and no more chasing down clients to confirm appointments or get paid! We think you’re going to love it.

Download PocketSuite today, securely import your contacts and start running a smarter business from your mobile phone.