Bootstrap has moved into a new office. We’re now located in downtown Campbell, California at 33 N. First Street, Suite B. As is fitting, it’s big on whiteboard space, short on overhead, and across the parking lot from Starbucks:-)
Thanks much to our new landlord, Todd. He runs a really cool eco-friendly car and scooter business - check them out!
The poor state of the economy gets a lot of media coverage these days, but we were especially intrigued by an email we received from one of our customers, Terrell, a professional photographer from Las Vegas. He mentioned that using Bootstrap had helped him see where he needed to cut costs. Because we thought other entrepreneurs might be in a similar boat, we asked Terrell for some more information about his story:
Q. Can you tell us about your business? What do you do? How long have you been in business? Is this your first business or have you run others before?
A. I’m a lifestyle photographer based in Las Vegas. I’ve been shooting professionally for about seven months and I specialize in family and children lifestyle photography but I love shooting people in general. This is my second business. I used to own an apparel company which I sold. I still work a regular 9-5 as a Curriculum Developer for a wireless Internet company .
Q. What do you enjoy most about running your own business?
A. I truly enjoy what I do. I get to befriend so many individuals as a photographer. They become friends, people I talk to regularly via email, or phone…though many of my clients are on Facebook we use it to keep in touch, share photos, etc. It’s great when you can build a great relationship with clients. As for running my own business I really enjoy the people aspect of it and just being in control of my success or failure. I’m hoping and striving for success of course.
Q. What do enjoy least?
A. I have to be honest. I prefer to be out shooting rather than seating behind a computer editing hundreds of photos for hours. I’ve finally decided to focus on what I love doing-which is capturing images. I’m working on farming out the post-processing either hiring someone part time or working with a post-processing company.
Q. Have the economic troubles impacted your business? If so, how?
A. It has a little but it’s also made me more creative. When I speak with potential clients I let them know that what I do is custom photography which is a luxury and not some cookie cutter chain experience. It’s an investment in time and money. From that investment the client receives something so priceless…images of their children at an age they will never be again—being themselves in the images free of cheesy posing. It’s about capturing the essence of the person being photographed. The images that are created will last forever. Some people may gasp at the price tag but if they truly want portraits that capture the moment—it’s worth every penny.
Q. Do you expect to cut back on business expenses over the next 6 months? If so, do you have a specific amount or goal in mind?
A. Cuts are sometimes necessary. Since I’ve been using Bootstrap I’ve seen where I need to be more lean. I’ve made a few bad purchases that I regret but they were learning moments and move on. The old adage is it takes money to make money. I’ve also decided to go even more green and not print out my price booklets and to use final packaging materials from sustainable companies…we only get one earth you know.. I believe clients will respect a well designed digital experience and the more earth friendly packaging. Don’t get me wrong, I think packaging is very important but I want to make sure that I keep cost low and pass on the savings to the client.
Q. You mentioned that using Bootstrap has already helped you find places to cut expenses. Could you share some examples?
A. I need to reevaluate my spending with certain online sites, find more reasonable alternatives that offer me the bang for my buck. I’ve taken more time to thoroughly investigate my options rather than going with the one with all the flashy buttons. Just yesterday, I came across a studio management system that is half the cost of my current solution and offers the same if not more features with a solid design. Can I say their name…Tave Studio rocks! It’s really important to find companies that ‘”get it”. Bootstrap is one of them. The support is fast and friendly. I can’t wait to grow with you guys! Rock on!!
We’ve received so many nice words of encouragement from users over the months that we wanted to share the feedback with others. Rest assured, we also receive plenty of comments on how we can make the site better, which is tremendously helpful. But we thought it would be good to showcase some of our users and the nice things they have to say about Bootstrap. As such, last night we rolled out a new customer testimonials page, where you can read what other entrepreneurs have to say about using Bootstrap.
Feel free to click on the links to each customer’s web site to learn more about your fellow entrepreneurs and their businesses. Cheers!
Based once again on some great customer feedback, today we released a number of enhancements to improve the Bootstrap experience.
The biggest change was the roll out of SSL, which stands for Secure Socket Layer. This technology encrypts the information that is passed back and forth between your browser and Bootstrap’s servers (including the business income and expenses you enter.) It’s an added security feature that is commonly found on e-commerce sites (where credit card numbers tend to get entered.) The two things that you can see to know it’s working are a URL that starts with “https” and a closed lock icon in your browser’s status bar.
The other improvements we made were to improve the speed of the site. We have always said having too many users sign up too quickly is a nice problem to have, but it is a problem nonetheless. So, we added a bunch of memory, doubled the number of processors (CPUs), and optimized the database. And for those of you who like to know more of the technical details, we also doubled the number of Mongrel instances:-)
Thanks again for all the feedback. Please keep it coming!
Let’s take a look at a very common practice in the world of small business - the use of independent contractors.
Many times, we small business owners need a little help to get our work done. So, we engage the services of an expert to help us. For instance, we used a couple of designers to help create the look and feel of the Bootstrap site. While this is definitely a lot easier than hiring an employee to do the work, there are still a number of complexities of which you should be aware.
First, make sure the person you use really does qualify as an independent contractor and is not an employee. See the IRS guide for more help.
Next, it’s a good idea, especially in the world of professional services, to use independent contractor agreements in addition to statements of work or other contracts. In addition to helping clarify the lack of an employer/employee relationship, it also helps to ensure that you own the rights to what the contractor produces for you. Odds are you’ve had to sign one yourself, but you can also find examples on Scribd and Docstoc.
Once you’ve agreed to use a contractor, you should get them to fill out form W9. This gives you the info you’ll need for your end of year reporting (more on that to come.)
Many states require that you report the “hiring” of independent contractors - so check to see if and where to submit to your state.
When you do pay contractors, make sure you track who you’ve paid and how much. Why? Because, for each person you pay more than $600 in a calendar year, you need to send both them and the IRS a copy of Form 1099MISC. You will need to enter the total amount paid in Box 7. With Bootstrap, we make this very simple - just use the “Contractors and freelancers” category for any payments to contractors throughout the year. We will be adding a new 1099 report that will list the contractors you’ve paid and the total for the year.
The fun really starts at the end of the year (or, to be technically correct, the beginning of the next year.) You need to send a copy to each contractor by January 31. You also need to file a copy for each contractor with the IRS by February 28 (or March 31 if filed electronically.) If you are going to file the paper copy with the IRS, you better make sure to get the official forms (the ones with the red ink,) either from the IRS or at most office supply stores. Why? Because the special forms are machine readable; printed versions (even with a color laser) are not.
So why is it important to file 1099s? I mean, what about paying folks under the table? Well, aside from being shady, the fact is, if you don’t file the 1099s with the government, you can’t deduct those payents. In this case, it really does pay to do the right thing:-)
Saw an interesting post today in the Wall Street Journal’s Independent Street blog on the Presidential candidates’ plans for helping small businesses.
One thing that seemed missing was help to push though legislation to make the home office deduction easier. In fact, it’s pretty funny to see candidates talk about assistance in covering health care benefits for employees, or lowering the tax rate on corporations. Given that almost 21MM small business in the US have no employees (out of ~27MM), and the vast majority are sole proprietors, it makes one wonder if the largest segment of entrepreneurs isn’t being overlooked. Oh yeah, and those 20.7MM non-employer businesses? They generated $970 Billion in receipts in 2006.
We can’t make the government give entrepreneurs a break, but at least we can help them write off their business deductions.
http://twitter.com/gobootstrap
We’ll continue to use the blog for official announcements and relevant content, but we thought we’d provide folks with a bit more visibility into some of our (random and not so random) thoughts as we work to make accounting and bookkeeping easier for the self-employed.
Since launching a few months ago, customers have been asking for the ability to track invoices in addition to payments received. In keeping with our goal to be the simplest and most open accounting and bookkeeping software for small businesses, today we released an easy-to-use integration with FreshBooks’ online invoicing application.
By simply entering two pieces of information about your FreshBooks account, you will enable Bootstrap to regularly download all of your invoices, payments and clients directly from FreshBooks. Now, you can not only track the money that you’ve been paid, but also keep tabs on money you’ve earned but haven’t yet received.
Just go to the settings tab and click on the FreshBooks menu item. Once you check the box to enable FreshBooks invoicing, all you need to do is enter your FreshBooks login ID and API token (just follow the on-screen help to learn where to find this.) That’s all there is to it.
Last night we uncovered an issue that caused the Taxes page not to load. While the page worked correctly through Monday’s important 3rd quarter filing deadline, several users encountered problems in the days following.
We’ve since corrected the problem (there was an invalid date in our system database) and the page again works fine.
To those customers who experienced the issue, we apologize and thank you for your patience.
Ok all you entrepreneurs out there, time to give the government it’s cut of the action. Third quarter estimated taxes are due this Monday, September 15. This payment is for earnings through August 31, 2008. And remember, if you’re self employed or run a business, you need to be paying self employment tax in addition to income tax. For those who may not be familiar with self-employment taxes, you need to pay 12.4% of the first $102,000 of self employment income into Social Security and 2.9% to Medicare (which has no upper income limit.)
If you use Bootstrap to track your income and expenses, you can get a conservative estimate of what to pay for Federal estimated taxes by clicking on the “Taxes” tab.
Don’t forget to also make your state payments (which vary by state of course, so make sure to look up your requirements.) We plan to offer help on estimated State taxes in the future, but won’t have it for this tax year.
To learn more about making Federal estimated tax payments, go to http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=110413,00.html
For those who lost their IRS payment vouchers, you can print them out at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf
Now, if you don’t expect to owe more than $1,000 in taxes for the whole year, then you don’t need to make estimated tax payments. But we’re hoping everyone out there is making lots of money, which would mean footing some of Uncle Sam’s bills.
Cheers and may you have a profitable fourth quarter!
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