Small business consulting expert Gene Marks spoke to bMighty about the myriad of collaboration tools that have helped small and midsize businesses cut costs and improve efficiencies -- including his own, which now has 10 employees and no office space.
The debate rages on among economists over whether we are officially in a recession or not, but the fact is that smaller businesses always need to keep an eye on the bottom line. Gene Marks, who heads the small-business consulting firm The Marks Group PC, believes that tech tools, more than anything else, can help smaller businesses survive and thrive in even the worst of economic times. Marks, who wrote The Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists and The Complete Idiot's Guide To Successful Outsourcing is a big believer in collaboration tools but bemoans what he sees as a lack of knowledge and understanding of these tools among small and midsize businesses. He spoke to bMighty about the virtues of collaboration tools, the ones he likes best, and which ones he uses to run his own smaller business.
bMighty: Why are collaboration tools so important to small and midsize businesses?
Gene Marks: They give the small and midsize business so many more options and flexibility in a difficult economic time. Their employees who are spending money on gas and travel -- they can spend a day or two at home. I speak to groups and I see there is not a lot of knowledge about collaboration tools. Small and midsize businesses have other things on their mind and they don't have the time, but they should.
Small and midsize businesses aren't using them or they're nervous about using them or they're not sure about them -- and this is cool stuff. For example, Glance is $50 a month and you can share your desktop. You can do your presentations off of that. Utipu helps smaller businesses that are into recording videos, tips, and training and you can post it on their site for free. Before you send a service person out, which costs you money, you can let customers go on that site. It's free.
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Citrix Online's GoToMyPC is $20 a month or there's LogMeIn [which is $19.75 a month for five PCs]. You set it up and log in. Also, Microsoft's Windows terminal server lets 10 people connect online, and no one knows anyone is there.
bMighty: How do collaboration tools help a smaller business' bottom line?
Marks: I have 10 employees and no office space. I got rid of it five years ago. All those costs were dragging us down and I had to raise rates. I closed up the office and put two servers in my basement and we set up the Windows server terminal network. I paid $99 one time for each remote user. When everyone is out and about and they can still get on our system or into GoldMine, the CRM app we use to track customers. Whenever anyone wants to access it, they go to any computer and type in the address of our server and go through some levels of security and then it pops up.
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All 10 of us are working on it and no one even knows. It saves transportation costs and tech costs. I got them cheapo laptops -- they don't save anything on their laptops so they don't need fancy machines. We're saving on rent. If you can't shut the office, you can reduce the space and sublease. You have to think on your feet in these times. These options didn't exist before, but now with remote tools we have people all around the world we can access. Our marketing consultant is in Dallas -- I never met her. Our PR person is in White Plains, N.Y.
Next Page: The Downside of Working Remotely
