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    The Cloud: How To Beat The Big Guys With Your Small Business

    6
    • by Mark Appel
    • in Business Software · Wholesale & Distribution
    • — 12 okt, 2013
    About 6 years ago I started my own wholesale & distribution business. I had exclusive rights for media players of the Mvix brand in the Benelux imported from South Korea. After travelling for several years in the Asia region for Commodore by that time I knew where to get the interesting consumer electronics. A media player you connect with your television so you can play all your digital video’s, photo’s and music from your pc on your tv. At that time an emerging product category and still many units are sold today through the retail chains. The product was great and market demand was increasing rapidly. Once ordered and paid I got my stuff straight by plane into The Netherlands and within a couple of days distributed the products to all major offline and online retail chains.

    Cashflow game

    I really loved the media players because of my natural interest for gadgets and other IT related products. Soon I realized it was a cash flow game. Normal payment conditions in retail are from 60-90 days but most of them were paying after 120 days. But because of the popularity of this new category I was sold out within a couple of weeks. But because of the popularity of this new category I was sold out within a couple of weeks.I was not able to finance new purchases with the profit of earlier deliveries because still waiting for the money. So that was the moment for me to start lending money from others to keep the stock rotation going. As a starter I did not realize that although my customers ordered again and again, my outstanding invoices were increasing. The lack of a good system or good advise didn’t gave me the insights I needed to red flag certain orders and deliveries.

    Just a regular accountant

    I was mainly doing my order administration, invoicing and stock management with Excel sheets. Once a month I send all my invoices and bank statements to the accountant and he was just doing his thing. Provided me with reports I was not able to read or to interpret so I was purely guiding myself based on my chaotic collection of Excel sheets. No additional advise, no suggestions or recommendations to collaborate in another way were coming from my accountant. By the time I realized my accounts receivable were at such a high level I was forced to stop deliveries to my biggest customer. By the time I realized my accounts receivable were at such a high level I was forced to stop deliveries to my biggest customer.They first had to pay. That was the beginning of the end. They stopped all payments and forced me to go to the court to get my money. After two years I won the case in court and got the money but meanwhile because of the damage caused there was no way back and went bankrupt.

    Turning back time

    Quite a sad story but I always believe that things happen for a certain reason. Six years later I have one of the most beautiful jobs in the world also because of this intense experience. But sometimes I think, if I could turn back time with the experience and insights I have today, what would I do differently? The products were great, having these is mandatory to create a fundament for success. The way I was organised was dramatic. Excel sheets and Word invoices, lots of paperwork going vice versa to the accountant and myself. Imagine that I had a system in place where many things were automated, 24×7 accessible through laptops, smartphones and tablets, how would that have effected my business?

    Business software in the cloud

    I am 100% sure that if I had organized myself in the cloud, collaborating with my suppliers, customers and accountant online this would have made a big big difference. Real time insights about the status of your business. Flexibility and expand capacity and functionalities in a pay per use construction, all in the cloud. Cost effective, no worries about technical infrastructure and fully engaged with the business. The systems I needed at that moment probably would have cost me ten thousands of euro’s to control my business.The systems I needed at that moment probably would have cost me ten thousands of euro’s to control my business. You had to be a big company to implement those systems. Today the world has completely changed. You start with a subscription for your accounting and/or wholesale & distribution company, pay per use. If you don’t like it you just cancel. Only for a relatively very small monthly fee. Having apps which can easily expand functionality to get additional stuff, for free or for very small amounts. Automated bankfeeds for your bank statements and VAT filings and payments 100% digital. That would have been awesome.

    Small beats big

    So for me the cloud stands for making your ambitions coming true. Being able as a small company to be disruptive in an industry and beat the big guys. The cloud is organic, adopts easily to changing playing fields and situations. Has a level of transparency and accessibility so you control your business 24×7 no matter where you are. No black boxes but control, no worries but a state of calmness toyou manage your business. If I had to do it all over again I would fully embrace the cloud, hire a SME focussed accountant to set-up a business framework that I was able to understand and control. With a set of KPIs that matters to me. And that’s what happens today. Who are the boys and girls that are disruptive in many industries? Who are the entrepreneurs who accelerate business that would normally take years? Who created an app for taking pictures with nice filters and sold it in 2 years for USD 2 billion to Facebook? Yes, the small ones. This is the new world, this is the new #weconomy where you work together and share via the cloud. This is the new world where anyone can make his dream really come true.

    Facebook buys Instagram
    Zuckenbergs promise
    Founders Instagram

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    Tags: clouddistributionentrepreneurwholesale

    — Mark Appel

    Hi, my name is Mark Appel (52), a family man, modern marketing professional and amateur triathlete. For over 25 years working in the IT industry. I worked for companies like Apple, 3Com, Peregrine, Wolters Kluwer, Exact and CM.com and currently as the Chief Marketing Officer for Backbase. I like to write about my general experiences and views on technology, marketing and the IT industry. All posts are on my personal behalf.

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    • 6 Replies
    • 2 Comments
    • 3 Tweets
    • 0 Facebook
    • 1 Pingback
    Last reply was 12 november 2013
    1. @preciesmark
      View 12 oktober 2013

      BLOG: How to beat the giants with your small #wholesale business in the #cloud? http://t.co/T0q1fhDAjn #accountant #entrepreneur

      preciesmark retweeted this
      Beantwoorden
    2. @preciesmark
      View 12 oktober 2013

      @lawinsider txs, was not published yet, now its on http://t.co/kXcBTZdSju How small businesses can beat the big ones

      Beantwoorden
    3. Gamification for cloud accounting
      View 29 oktober 2013

      […] For me personally it looks like we are getting close to the essence of the cloud. I already wrote a blog about it earlier. The cloud as an enabler for small companies to defeat the big ones. This […]

      Beantwoorden
    4. Brian Landes
      View 12 november 2013

      Dear Mark
      I came across your website (Preceismark) a few weeks ago and have found your articles very interesting. I’m an enrolled agent and I work at a small, traditional CPA firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. I can empathize with your experiences in the wholesale and distribution business. Your description of running your business with a chaotic collection of excel spreadsheets and basically guiding yourself without the proper systems in place or the needed collaboration or advice from your accountant still rings true today for many businesses. I would say half of my time is spent doing bookkeeping, payroll and compilation work for small businesses. Our office still uses QB desktop applications and the client sends us his packet each month; namely this includes his sales figures, A/R outstandings, bank statements, check registers, etc. I then compile this information to provide the client with detailed financial reports. Its an embarrassment to me when the client calls and is still waiting for his reports from two months ago! All because the partner is too busy to get around to reviewing the job.

      Two years ago I would have said that QuickBooks Online was a joke. The product was slow and it was a mere shadow of the features and robustness of the desktop version. But I can see that Intuit is serious about making QBO their flagship product. Small business are truly seeing the benefits of going to a platform independent, always on, fully mobile way of doing business. And businesses are either going to succeed or die if they can’t keep everything under control and coordinated in real time. This is going to require a level of service and attention that accountants are probably not used to.

      Like you say things are changing. The cloud is making accounting, production, logistics, CRM much more cost effective with flexibility, scalability and mobility. Thank you for sharing your insights in this still developing area.

      Brian Landes, MBA, EA
      San Mateo, CA
      bllandes2000@yahoo.com

      P.S. Thank goodness for Google Translate – I can even read your articles in Dutch, well sort of.

      Beantwoorden
      • Mark Appelreplied:
        View 12 november 2013

        Hi Brian, txs for your response! Good to read that you are open to change opinions and make the right choices. Would be great if you can share your insights with us with regards to QBO specifically for verticals.

        Beantwoorden
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