I don’t see a lot of exciting announcements in wall socket technology. Aside from that red reset button that started showing up when I was a kid, not much has changed. I’m sure, behind the scenes, there have been multiple upgrades and improvements that have kept us safe, but it’s certainly not something I think about upgrading all that often.

I believe that’s about to change.

Take a look at this beauty. Yes, that’s right, those are USB ports.

One of my favourite adapters are the little white USB to power adapters I get from time to time from Apple. I got one with a dock I bought, and I’m pretty sure one came with my iPhone (but I could be wrong). With all the gadgets I have that charge by USB, having the ability to plug them into a wall socket is incredibly convenient. Being able to skip past the adapter entirely is pure genius. According to the folks at FastMac, the company selling these, the current price is $19.95US.

Not to be picky about a great idea, but I’m wondering about expansion. Could I plug a hub into this? What about one of those ugly adapters you get from the dollar store that turns the two sockets into 6? Could I get one like that, but instead it just has two rows of USB ports? How great would that be?

Here’s the only downside, from the company’s website.

This item is currently waiting on final safety approval. It is scheduled to begin shipping in October.

Ok, so we’ll have to be a bit patient. You can pre-order the outlets from the website now, and they won’t charge your credit card until they ship. I really hope that these show up in October. For anyone with an office, this would be an amazing way to declutter your space. Think of how many ugly adapters and power bricks you could eliminate with a couple of these on the wall?

The U-Socket Charges USB Devices Without an Adapter. – Here’s the Lifehacker article that informed me of this magnificent products’ imminent arrival.

It’s been hard to drive around downtown Lethbridge for the past year or so. If you’re not from around here, look at the map below. It will give you a good idea of where we’re at in relation to the US, and the rest of Canada. Just an hour North of the US/Canada border, it’s a beautiful city with a population around 85,000.

So why has it been so hard? There are just too many closed and boarded up shops, especially in the heart of the downtown area. Sure, there are always businesses that come and go. You’ve got about a 50/50 chance of surviving your first 5 years of business, so some turnover is expected. That’s not what I’m talking about.

It just seems like a lot of established businesses are closing their doors too. In the past couple years, we’ve lost 2 fairly big grocery stores. Ironically, the first one was located close to my house, and closed within a couple months of us moving in. The other was a few blocks from my office, and closed down last year. Gone are the days of independent bookstores (unless they’re used books). I believe there is 1 independent music store left (CD’s, vinyl, etc. not instruments). The business I worked for closed down last year after being in business for over 50 years. In the past week, I’ve heard rumours surrounding 2 more stores potentially closing down, both in the food industry. One has been around for a while, the other is fairly new.

My feelings on this are not based on any statistics. I don’t know if things are any worse than they were 10 or 20 years ago. It just feels worse. Maybe it’s because I’m older now, and I look at the city in a different light. Maybe I’m a bit jaded because my paycheque was affected by one of these shutdowns. Who knows?

Don’t get me wrong. If you want to open a big box store, or a smaller well-known franchise restaurant, this is a great place to be. If you feel the need to open a liquor store on a street that already has 3, chances are good that you will still get plenty of business. It’s not that the city itself is dying….far from it. There just seems to be a problem in keeping a small business alive.

So, is the economy, or is it us? Are small businesses dying out at the same rate everywhere, or are we as a community just not supporting our own the way others do? This feels like a topic I need to do some more work and research on. In fact, I’m in the middle of developing another website, devoted to more local matters. This post will most likely end up there too. In the meantime, please let me know in the comments how you feel about this.

Are you from Lethbridge? Do you agree with my views on the state of small business here?

Is your town/city experiencing similar problems?

Let me know. I think this is something we need to start talking about.

I have been a very loyal QuickBooks user for the past 6 years or so. Prior to that, there were several other programs I used, including MYOB (which is no longer available in Canada) and Simply Accounting. For the most part, they’ve all done their job, and done it well.

Are there things I’d like to change about them? How long do you have? The problem with using a “one-size-fits-all” program is the same problem you face when you buy clothes that say that on the label. They never really fit, but they’re usually close enough that it’s not worth the drive back to the store. With software, being this “one-size-fits-all” means you have to be good at everything, for a wide range of industries. Because I work with that wide range of industries, it’s the best option for me. The problem is that, when you don’t specialize, you can’t be “great” at any one aspect.

For accounting software, QuickBooks is my favourite. It has a lot of really good features, and it does enough of what I want it to do, that I don’t think it would be worth my time to switch my clients to something new. I know that’s not really strong praise. Maybe I’m just really picky. Either way, I still buy it, year after year, so that must mean something.

But what about my business?

See, here’s the irony about bookkeeping businesses. As a rule, we don’t require that complex of a bookkeeping program. I bill out a handful of clients throughout the year. Sure, February-April is usually a bit more hectic with tax returns, but otherwise, it’s fairly straightforward. I don’t get the kind of customer traffic my clients who run retail establishments get. I have a fairly basic set of expenses that I have to pay for on a regular basis, like;

• office supplies
• software
• web hosting
• home office expenses (utilities, phone, etc)
• advertising
• and so on

I don’t have a huge list of vendors to deal with. I pay for everything in the moment, or on a monthly subscription, so I don’t have Accounts Payable balances to worry about. I also have great clients, who tend to pay on time, so I don’t have Accounts Receivable balances to worry about. All in all, my accounting software needs are pretty basic.

The Experiment

I recently started reading (listening to) John Jantsch’s The Referral Engine. I’m only about 1/7th of the way through, but I can already tell this is going to be a favourite. He talks about the power of customer referrals, and how few companies do a good job asking for and then harnessing those referrals to grow their business. He uses examples of companies who do a great job taking care of their customers. Of course, Zappos is listed, as it always is. However, he mentioned a company called Freshbooks.

Unlike QuickBooks, Freshbooks is by no means a “one-size-fits-all” application. It targets a much smaller niche with its product. It doesn’t do payroll or inventory, and will not reconcile your bank accounts. Because of that, I think it has the ability to focus on what it does do, and possibly do it better. Freshbooks is a web-based billing and time tracking application. I guess “bookkeeping-lite” would be a good way to describe it. It helps you track your time and expenses, and then lets you bill your clients for those expenses. The web-app is really slick. It has a nice clean interface, and there are lots of 3rd party apps and services that work with Freshbooks. For up to 3 clients, the service is free. You can send out as many invoices, and track as many expenses as you want, you just can’t go over the 3 client limit.

If you want to break through the 3 client limit, there are 4 levels of paid service. All paid accounts remove the branding from any emails you send out through Freshbooks.

Solo and Solo Unlimited ($19.95/month and $29.95/month, respectively), Team ($39.95/month), and Recurring ($79.95/month). The only difference between the first two is client limit. Solo gives you support for 25 clients, Unlimited is, well, unlimited. Team and Recurring give you the option to have additional staff members work on the same company file, and setup team reports, etc. Recurring gives you 500 auto-bills, which lets you setup recurring charges to your clients each month.

This would be really helpful if you were charging a subscription service. Actually, if I had enough clients, and I was billing them a fixed monthly fee (which I usually do), this would save me a ton of time.

Now, I wonder if Freshbooks will help me find enough clients to make it worth the $79.95/month.

I had tried them out a year ago, very briefly. I billed a client, which included sending out an invoice by email. You can also choose to have them send the client an invoice by mail, as long as you pay for postage. Talk about convenience! The emailed invoice includes PayPal (or similar) instructions so the client can pay you online, or information on the other ways you accept payment. I quickly received a payment from the client, and marked it off as paid in Freshbooks.

Why Didn’t I Keep Using It?

When you work in an industry, you tend to use the same tools that the rest of the industry uses. For me, I kept thinking I needed to use QuickBooks for my own records. But, just like the NASCAR mechanic using racing fuel for his Hyundai, QuickBooks is overkill for me.

Listening to the book reminded me of Freshbooks, and how much I enjoyed using the service. I also wasn’t aware that it was a Canadian company (based in Toronto). I know, it’s a bit foolish to sign up with a company based on their geography. If I end up hating the service, I won’t keep using it out of Canadian guilt. But, if I end up liking the service, it’s a great bonus to know that I’m supporting a fellow Canadian company.

Enough Already…What’s the Experiment?

Sorry, I got a bit wordy there, didn’t I. Here’s the experiment. I’m going to use Freshbooks exclusively for my own record keeping for the month of June. That means all my invoicing, as well as all of my time and expense tracking. At the end of June, and perhaps along the way, I will post my thoughts. If things go well, I will permanently switch to using Freshbooks. Although it may not mean an immediate switch to a paid account, it will absolutely mean one in the near future.

Don’t worry, Intuit, I won’t stop using QuickBooks for my clients. Since the software I use is part of my monthly ProAdvisor subscription, you won’t be losing any money from me either.

update: I posted a brief summary of my experiment on my Squidoo lens, and then posted the update to Twitter. Within minutes (at least it seemed like it), @freshbooks had sent me a reply, offering their help if I needed it. They suggested that trying out the support as part of my experiment would be a good idea. THIS, is exactly the kind of service you need to provide your current AND future customers. Well done Freshbooks!

If any of you out there have used Freshbooks in the past, I’d love to hear from you. Leave your comments, including any good or bad experiences you’ve had.