This month we interviewed Shaun Brickell from Icily Live and got his advice, as well as opinions on business and how having a good accounting software, can make all the difference in your day to day tasks.
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What does your business specialize in?
Icily Live specializes in sales and rental of equipment to the broadcast industry. We supply vision mixing solutions, cameras and audio-visual equipment to suit any environment wanting to stream, live broadcast or even just live to screen in houses of worship.
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How big is your company and how long have you been operating for?
This division of the business is a year old and has two full-time employees.
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How did you grow your business (from the ground up)?
As partners in business, myself and Craig Parrott both come from the industry. I have been involved in Live Event productions for 20 years and Craig has a career in creative video editing and shooting spanning 10 years.
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What has your relationship with EasyBiz Technologies been like and where did you hear about them?
To be completely honest I did my own research into an accounting system that could seamlessly integrate into our online store with the availability of local support from EasyBiz Technologies. QuickBooks, coupled with MyWorks Software Plugin to our WordPress (WooCommerce) site provided a balance of professionalism, the least amount of duplication and cost-effectiveness for our growing business.
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How has QuickBooks Online assisted you with day to day tasks?
QuickBooks allows us to be on the road, quoting and invoicing from our mobiles, iPads, and laptops as well as keeping an eye on online orders. Service is everything in our business so being able to process quotes and orders while on the go is imperative. In addition to this, we are able to keep an eye on online orders and quotation requests from our website.
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How has EasyBiz Technology and QuickBooks Online assisted in growing your business?
Being able to manage our online store and accounting system in one place means we have no errors in our stock control or pricing. Utilising the MyWorks plugin allows us to update pricing from either QuickBooks or WooCommerce and the data is then automatically synchronized to the other. If you have ever run an online business, you will know keeping pricing in sync is an ongoing time-consuming challenge that most small business owners don’t have the time for.
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How can accounting software assist a business in growing?
Having a dashboard with a quick overview of your current financial state really helps small business owners understand minute by minute where their business is tracking. Having the category breakdown also assists me in understanding which categories are profitable and which are taking up space and consuming my cashflow. All this can be viewed in real time, but running your own books and not having to wait until year-end for your accountant to tell you where things are going wrong.
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What are some tips you can give to someone wanting to grow their own company?
Start your business with a strategy. Know what you DO and more importantly what you DON’T DO. Don’t try to build a thousand-point business plan that consumes all your time. Focus on 3 to 5 important areas in your business and do these well. Every point in your strategy should include a measurement matrix. If it can’t be measured, take it out. Spend time understanding your customers and competitors. Know what your customer’s touchpoints are and how your business can help them achieve their goals. Know what your competitors are doing well and do it better and equally important, know where they are failing and be the hero in this space.
Sign up now and see how having trustworthy and reliable accounting software can assist you and your business too. This where we can help. Have a look at our products here EasyBiz Tech and let EasyBiz and QuickBooks assist you with your accounting and bookkeeping needs.