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gosmash
22 Mar 15 22:29
Joined:
Date Joined: 24 Jun 10
| Topic/replies: 536 | Blogger: gosmash's blog
Am soon to be starting a business which involves having agents out on the road , selling products direct to the end user which will be sent directly from the overseas manufacturer.  Looking at having around 10 agents with 3 or 4 office staff.
Have had a glance at "salesforce" and am going to test drive sage 50 this week.

If anyone has experience in this area , advice would be much appreciated as it is not my area of expertise to say the least !
Doesn't need to be that complex at this stage.  Needs to cover , invoicing , purchasing , sales , banking and leads i would say with a simple way of producing reports.

Many thanks in advance
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Report themightymac March 22, 2015 10:52 PM GMT
What kind of products are you selling?
Report themightymac March 22, 2015 10:54 PM GMT
There are hundreds of retired book keepers out there who will keep your accounts in order if you bung them a few quid.
Report doantwin2easy March 22, 2015 10:57 PM GMT
are we talking b2b or b2c. Not that I can help tbh, I would just like clarification Plain
Report The Leopard March 22, 2015 11:14 PM GMT
Look out for a guy called Eachway.....the best mop salesman south of Watford !

Would be a great addition to your team.
Report doantwin2easy March 22, 2015 11:33 PM GMT
I knocked doors for about 7 months in some pretty rough parts of London - 2 for 1 deals on restaurants and golf clubs etc. Remember getting chased down a driveway by an old timer with a stick for no reason at all.

But earnt a few quid, and gave me a grounding in sales.
Report themightymac March 22, 2015 11:49 PM GMT
Aye and got you in training for the Olympics LaughLaugh
Report themightymac March 22, 2015 11:50 PM GMT
100 metres and the High Jump LaughLaugh
Report themightymac March 22, 2015 11:50 PM GMT
100 metres and the High Jump LaughLaugh
Report doantwin2easy March 22, 2015 11:59 PM GMT
very good indeed
Report themightymac March 23, 2015 12:10 AM GMT
You done well if you sold anything there dwe. The inhabitants don`t strike me as the type to go to restaurants or join golf clubs Shocked

Mind you, if you had been doing 2 for 1 deals on Chippies and Baseball bats you would have made a fortune LaughLaugh
Report doantwin2easy March 23, 2015 12:39 AM GMT
I remember plenty days clearing £150+ for myself. We used to ring the bell if we hit our target. That incident happened in a dodgy part of Islington and it had its moments, but generally people were straight up.
Report mememe March 23, 2015 10:14 AM GMT
Free advice from one who knows.

Start by defining your requirements ... simple check list should do.

And then look at software packages and check how close they are to meeting your requirements - simple scoring system will suffice.

Then when you have 2 or 3 contenders who have best fit to your requirements, call some reference site users and check their experience.

Then select.

Do not go about it by starting at the systems end - will end in tears.
Report gosmash March 23, 2015 3:12 PM GMT
mememe , thanks, seems a sensible way to approach it
Report fkqmz March 25, 2015 8:32 PM GMT
you need what every other small business needs - someone who is highly proficient on Microsoft Excel. A good excel programmer is worth way more than any software you buy because excel can do literally anything once you know how to manipulate it. There are only 2 reasons why you should abandon excel, either 1)because your business becomes so big that it slows your excel reports down to an unworkable speed and you need server power to handle the load or 2)because the customers have to interact with your system, meaning you need a presentable front end. For what you're talking about, 1 good excel guy and a network of spreadsheets will be way better value than the software your flirting with!
Report dave1357 March 26, 2015 2:55 PM GMT

Mar 22, 2015 -- 11:52PM, themightymac wrote:


What kind of products are you selling?


selling products direct to the end user which will be sent directly from the overseas manufacturer.

mail order brides imo

Report Stow_judge March 26, 2015 4:14 PM GMT
Access would probably be better than excel, since you'd be able to produce reports etc
There are templates that would probably be a good starting point & time saver
http://access.microsofttemplates.org/template/business-templates
Report mememe March 26, 2015 4:44 PM GMT
gosmash, as I posted earlier, start looking from a business requirements perspective, not what Excel or Access or any other software can do.

That's what a lot (many, many) businesses do and then spend their time and money tinkering about (big time) and employing armies of consultants to get the systems to work.

Just don't listen to the IT solutions led approach.  Look at BF if you want proof that big businesses are generally hopelessly IT illiterate and can't do simple things well.  They'll take 5 days just to get the clock right after this weekend, FFS.
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