Have come across some excellent resources for small businesses recently and thought I would share them.
Xero.com
A New Zealand based outfit with offices in London and Australia offers an online SAAS bookkeeping and accounting solution. I have been using it for 6 months or so now and I find it first rate - easy to set-up, easy to share access with financial advisers and easy to issues invoices and keep track of payments.. shame the price jumps so much for handling multiple currencies - but still good value for money. It pays for itself each month when I get round to generating invoices - I used to do each one manually in a Word Doc.. major pain!
All Day PA
Just came across this and looking at giving it a try until our UK operations are scaled up enough to warrant having someone in-house - not tested it out thoroughly - but seems to offer professional service and good value for money. (£100 a month or less by all accounts - for up to 200 calls).. no contract, no setup fee. Will report back once I have given it a road test.
OnlinePRNews.com
Have used these guys for over a year now as and when I need to. Fast and professional service, have had a good response from even the cheapest packages ($12). If you are into PR distribution, suggest you give it a whirl.
UK Business Forums
A relatively new member, I dip in and out of these forums now and then - its a great source of information and advice for anyone interested in doing business with or in the UK. Probably the best forum in its niche.
Freelancer.co.uk
Declaration: I am the UK Manager (on a Freelance, but close to full time basis)
Last but not least Freelancer.co.uk is an outstanding platform to get fixed price jobs done. Average job gets about 25 bids (unless like me you have someone in mind and hire them before its even distributed to their network of 2.5m users). The Aussie based site is going from strength to strength with plenty of hard work behind the scenes to attract quality buyers and providers, improve the interface and enhance the service portfolio. It's a must try in my book - and just keeps getting better..
