On-demand, hosted apps for small business is just such a HUGE opportunity. I love this space. And one of the very coolest things I saw at DEMOfall was CashView, an online cash management service that simplifies the way you send invoices, receive payments , and pay bills. 
Remember that advice you heard from some wise, old guy when you started your business — "Listen to me, watch my lips: cash is more important than your mother!" ? Well, assuming you’ve been managing yours manually via the paper method up till now, with all its attendant problems — then, wow, is this a service for you. I know I’ll be signing up myself as soon as I get back home. It’s even free till the end of the year, and then only $10 a month. [Are you kidding me? I pay more than that for my blogging platform service!]
Did you know that 97% of invoices are processed manually? Hello!?! Why, friends, are we doing this to ourselves? We have the Internet, we have hosted services, we have smart companies like CashView — why are we letting paperwork weigh us down? Here’s the way CashView nets it out: "We stop the paper madness, so business owners can focus on growing their businesses." 
They even cite a recent survey that found businesses spend twice as much time on administrative financial tasks than on growing their business. WTF? That’s insanity! It’s funny, I was just discussing this topic a few weeks ago — telling somebody that it seems I have to spend half my time on marketing and selling, and another quarter on collecting — so, when the heck do I do all the work?
Anyway, so I told these guys my cash flow sucks [and you who are responsible for that know who you are out there 🙂 ]….and i figure I could justify using this thing just for the automated notices it sends out to remind clients to pay my bills! But the app will even make electronic payments for me, too, if I want, eliminating the need for me to write checks when bill paying time comes around. And, of course, it schedules payments for me, via a dashboard that lets me see my cashflow in real time, anytime — from any computer anywhere.
When I saw this app up close in the Pavilion area, I kid you not, I felt like hugging the guy giving me the demo — the CEO, Rene Lacerte (who’s a guy with a lot of great, relevant experience). The investors like this company, too, because it just announced a second round of financing for $6.5 million led by Emergence Capital — and I chatted with partner Brian Jacobs about the big opportunity it represents.
So, if you’re a solo practitioner like me, or a small biz of any kind (they even say up to 500 employees), go sign up now at www.CashView.com — and tell your accountant to do it, too. And let’s both spend the time we save doing more productive things and growing our businesses, huh?
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