Tag: cloud solutions

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Licensing for Hosted Application Services: Why it costs what it costs

Licensing for Hosted Application Services:

Why it costs what it costs

Application hosting services are experiencing resurgence in popularity these days, due to the prevalence of messaging about the benefits of a “cloud” technology model.  While hosted application services aren’t really cloud (according to cloud technology purists, anyway), they can look and feel and be paid for just like cloud solutions, so the name fits OK.  Hosted applications are desktop or network applications you access via the web, where the software is implemented and managed by a 3rd party application service provider (the host) rather than being installed on your local PC or LAN.  Some software products may be rental-licensed by the ASP, and when combined with the hosting service, the entire subscription service is more like SaaS (software-as-a-service) than the old “purchase and install” approach.

An important supporting program for application hosting service providers is the Microsoft Service Provider License Agreement program. Under a formal agreement with Microsoft or via an SPLA reseller, service providers and independent software vendors are able to license the latest Microsoft software to provide software services and hosted applications to customers. With the SPLA, service providers and ISVs can lawfully license Microsoft products on a monthly basis to host software services and provide application access for their customers. The SPLA supports a variety of hosting scenarios to help providers deliver highly-customized and robust solutions to a wide range of subscribing customers, and it’s the only valid means for obtaining subscription-based provider licensing for these products.

Because the software products being hosted are essentially desktop or LAN-based products, the underlying technology to “deliver” those applications is generally of a similar foundation.  In cases where the provider is offering hosting of Windows-based QuickBooks desktop editions or Microsoft Office applications, for example, the platforms and servers used by the service provider are almost certainly Windows-based.  This operating system, as well as the rights to allow remote user connections to it, is licensed to the provider from Microsoft under the SPLA.  These elements are referred to as “user” licensing elements.

An aspect of Microsoft reporting and licensing which is not well recognized (or frequently complied with) is the difference between user and application licensing.

User licensing, which includes the Windows server access license as well as the remote desktop user license, is a named user access license. This means that the provider need only report and settle for the user license if the user actually accesses the system during the reporting period (usually each month).  Not quite like a concurrent user model, where only the high count of users is reported, the named user model requires that the license for each user be paid if that user logged in at any time and remained logged in for any length of time during the reporting period.

Application licensing applies to the application software license acquired through and governed by the use-rights provided for and granted under the Microsoft SPLA. Rental application licensing is assigned to a specific, named user, and is to be reported fully on a monthly basis regardless of whether or not the user accessed the software. This is in direct contrast to the named user access licensing described above. Providers are required to report and settle on a monthly basis the total number of subscribed application licenses available to users, including Microsoft Office applications, Exchange, SQL and others, regardless of whether or not the user actually logged in and used the products.  The license is assigned to the user and is therefore required to be paid.

Being an application hosting service provider is a complicated business, and there is a lot to consider when developing subscription services for broad customer delivery.  Pricing is one of the complaints customers voice relating to these services, but the reality is that it takes quite a bit in terms of system resources and licensing to provide an acceptable hosted application experience.  This is one of the areas where SaaS and true cloud solutions benefit from a scale economy – where the application is designed for the platform, and one instance of the solution and platform can serve a large number of customers more affordably.

When working with a hosting service provider, it is wise to recognize that the platform and software licensing costs are there to support the type of applications being hosted.  If you have an SQL-based application, you will need the SQL licensing to support it, just like you have to pay for licensing of an Exchange mailbox or a hosted copy of Word.  Enabling only a portion of the total business software requirement may make it difficult to cost justify hosting just one solution.  However, if the business utilizes the host to manage all the desktop applications and data, the cost-efficiency of the approach can increase dramatically.  Regardless of whether the business elects to continue to run software on local PCs, or if it decides to outsource IT to a host and run it there, the company will have to pay the price for software licensing.

Make sense?

J

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What we’ve learned about desktop and application hosting for small businesses

Application hosting is pretty popular these days, and a lot of that popularity can be attributed to the proliferation of web-based and SaaS solutions that have clearly revealed the benefits of mobility and managed service.  Not everyone wants to or can use a web-based application, however, causing demand for hosting of desktop applications to grow.  Take a look at what’s going on with Intuit QuickBooks, for example.  With all the push to QuickBooks Online, Intuit has created a surge in the demand for hosted QuickBooks desktop editions.  Folks want their QuickBooks available for remote access and to support multiple users from different locations… but they also want to continue to use the feature-rich QuickBooks desktop products their businesses rely on.  Hosting lets them have their cake and eat it, too.  It’s the best of both worlds.

Back in 2000, there were a few in the tech industry that said the desktop would be dead soon.  Business users wouldn’t be sitting down to work at computers, they would be using various devices to access their applications and data, from anywhere.  Those early visionaries recognized that mobility was the coming thing, and that even the smallest of businesses would need what was at the time enterprise-class technology. I wasn’t so sure about the potential death of the desktop and the beloved applications businesses love to use, but I was pretty certain that “working online” with centrally-managed systems was the thing to work toward.

A lot of hosting companies started up at that time, and a lot of them went out of business just a few years later – some in virtual flames.  Customers lost time, productivity, and in some cases their data.  Investors lost their investments.  It wasn’t that the service providers weren’t doing a good job, or that the technology wasn’t quite up to the task – the problem was the hype and the money.  Too many people sat on the sales-side of the technology, making promises they couldn’t deliver and coming up short in meeting investor and customer demands.

Quite a number of years have gone by, and the market is still rife with promises unkept and solutions undelivered.  But some of us in the industry have learned a lot over the years, so I’d like to share some of that learning.

Application hosting services gained popularity because they solved some major problems for businesses and their collaborators (including accountants, bookkeepers, remote workers, etc.).

Hosted application services allow everyone to work on the same software and data, regardless of where the user is located. Hosted application services provide centralized access for businesses with multiple locations or mobile workers.  And hosted application services make it easier for contracted or engaged professionals like accountants and bookkeepers to work closer with their clients.

In the beginning, when we were just launching these hosting services, the equipment, facilities and expansive engineering labor requirements were really expensive so there was tremendous pressure to find ways to keep costs down.  For customers, the plan was to pack as many users into the environment as possible, with volume representing a way to get a lower per-user cost.  This concept paved the way for the accountant cloud server model, where it was suggested that an accounting firm could bring all their clients onto the cloud server to help keep the costs down.  For a while that model worked pretty well, but then some issues started to be revealed.

With small business application hosting, particularly when dealing with QuickBooks, it should be recognized that nobody uses just QuickBooks.

There’s almost always a plug-in or add-on or some other solution that is also required with QuickBooks. Taking payments in QuickBooks requires a 3rd party plugin if you aren’t going to use Intuit payment solutions.  Downloading payroll data from another service may also require a plugin, as does the tax add-on and the order sync tool and the solution that integrates orders from the website or via EDI from vendors or suppliers.  It is almost never just QuickBooks.  When a provider tries to pack all that customization into a single server and serve a whole lot of different business, each with their own needs – things go a bit sideways.  Servers hang, customer applications interfere with one another, and data gets compromised.

The next phase then was either VDI or dedicated service.  VDI was and continues to be too expensive and complex when you have to factor in database engines, shared storage and such.  Dedicated service (server) is a bit more straightforward and still has some economy of scale.  With this model, each customer gets what they need.  They’re still in a cloud-hosted environment so collaboration isn’t a problem, and every customer has the benefit of working with exactly the software solutions they need for their particular business.  The challenge is serving just a few users.  Even though cloud servers can be relatively affordable to get these days, it may still be too costly for one- or two-user situations. (Note that these are the folks that often find themselves compelled to try the online, web version of an application simply due to cost.)

The customized cloud delivery is the right concept, but many service providers still have problems supporting multiple applications for customers and often charge quite a bit extra while delivering a marginal level of service.  You may find a provider who will try to deliver any application for you (and many will do that poorly) or you may find a popular provider that can only offer a particular set of applications for hosting.  If the provider isn’t able to deliver the applications the business needs, or if they are unable to deliver custom or personalized service, then they are likely not the right provider for the business.

The emergence of public cloud services like AWS should make it easier for small businesses to get affordable computing power and customized cloud service from any IT provider, but it hasn’t yet. 

The public cloud is still far too complicated for most small businesses to navigate or even get started with.  Truthfully, it is difficult for many IT resellers and partners to navigate, too.  Getting started is potentially costly in terms of time and resources especially for service providers, so those costs and complications end up reaching through to the customer.  The public cloud just isn’t ready for the average small business to take advantage of directly, so on-premises servers or managed cloud server hosting are still the most viable options.

A big wrinkle in the whole hosted online application model is that many businesses don’t really need or want to completely outsource their IT to a cloud provider.

Considerations relating to privacy and proximity are paramount for many business owners, not to mention the trust factor.  Lawyers, accounts, manufacturers… business owners in any industry may be uncomfortable considering moving their systems and information out of their immediate control.  There could be regulatory concerns or logistical challenges, or it could be something as simple as realizing that there remain applications or data on computers on-premises that make an outsourced hosting approach more complicated and costly while delivering only a partial solution.  Whatever the reasons, there remains a lot of in-house IT and that’s OK.

There is no doubt that business owners and their team members need and want mobility and secure remote access.  They also want to work with the IT providers they trust and maybe they even want to continue working from servers they have already contracted for or purchased. Others may wish to leverage cloud platforms, but remain closely associated with their IT providers.

Forcing a business owner to migrate their systems to a hosting platform when all they really want is remote access or multi-user service seems a bit like overkill.

Granted, there are many benefits to be derived from outsourcing IT management and administration, like improved focus on the business, and various business processes and workflows could be more streamlined with a centrally-managed and fully accessible solution.  Yet those benefits are the intangibles that businesses must discover after-the-fact, and are achieved only if the business works specifically towards those goals.  In short, it isn’t necessarily what business owners are buying.

If we have learned nothing else over the years it is that things don’t move as quickly as we’d like them to.

The world never seems to end before your homework is due.

Software-as-a-Service hasn’t completely killed off desktop software, and smartphones and tablets haven’t ended the useful life of the desktop computer.   What they have done is fully expose the desire and need for mobility and access, and have opened the doors for tools to address those needs better than the other approaches previously available.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

 

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The Cloud and the Business Desktop

Cloud computing is here – no longer is it considered to be temporary or just a fad.  Even though there are many businesses in the country without access to high quality high-speed Internet connectivity, the levels of investment and revenue surrounding cloud and mobile computing solutions and technologies has proven that mobility and managed service matter to those who are connected. What’s interesting is that the popularity of the cloud and the emergence of cloud-based applications and services haven’t really put much of a dent in the need for the desktop, which remains as the business workhorse and – connected or not – represents the foundation for business productivity and getting work done.

Some years ago, business applications began to emerge in SaaS (software-as-a-service) format, meaning a customer could simply subscribe to an application on the web rather than purchasing and installing software.  This option clearly resounded with many business customers and ushered in an era of online application services oriented specifically toward mobile users. Yet the desktop remains as the place where online solutions meet productivity (export any online data to an Excel spreadsheet recently?) and where accounting and finance connect with the rest of the operation.

Believing too much of the marketing-speak around cloud computing, many business users believe that they can only remotely access business software solutions if they are “cloud” and subscription model applications, and that the desktop products they know and have invested in cannot be available to them in a fully managed online model.  In fact, a large number of the business owners I speak with that actually use hosted desktop services somehow believe that the software they are using is something special and different from that which would be installed to their PCs. The fact is that the software is not different, regardless of what they may think. More often than not, the hosted applications are EXACTLY what the customer had previously installed (or would have installed) to their own computers had they not been working with a hosting provider.  Whether they are hosted or not… the desktop products generally function with all the features and capability designed into them because they are hosted on platforms they were designed to run on (like Microsoft Windows, for example).

Customers of the QuickBooks hosting companies often refer to their systems as “QuickBooks cloud, but not the online one”, not really understanding that it is simply the full desktop application that is being hosted for them.

Regardless of how many online application services emerge, and even if (IF) web-based versions of our favorite word processing and spreadsheet software become as useful as the installed kind, there will still be a need for the desktop if for no other reason than to make it easier to use and work with a variety of solutions at the same time.  Perhaps this is why remote desktop computing and hosted application services are becoming increasingly popular approaches to cloud and managed computing services.  The user benefits from having the feature-rich applications they need and a single place to access them and make them work together (the desktop value proposition), yet is able to have remote and mobile access, comprehensive system management and maintenance, data protection, helpdesk support and affordable monthly payments (the cloud value proposition).  In many ways, application hosting models represent the best of both worlds for the business.

JJoanie Mann Bunny Feet

Make Sense?

Consider how beneficial it would be to businesses who want the advantage of remote desktop and mobile access to applications to be able to run their QuickBooks (feature-rich desktop QuickBooks) and/or other business applications in an anytime, anywhere sort of environment. Businesses can obtain hosting services for QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise – allowing organizations to have their QuickBooks financial applications managed, protected, secured, and made available to users all the time and from any location. Some hosting services may also support integrations and extensions for QuickBooks – for both desktop and Web-based applications and services. When the host can provide authorized subscription licensing for Microsoft Office, a business can have a complete, outsourced IT solution and pay only monthly service fees to get it. No installation or system management to worry about: the QuickBooks financials, the productivity, the operational systems and plugged-in applications can all be hosted in the cloud.

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The Cloud, The Desktop and QuickBooks

subtitle: Just When They Told You the Desktop Was Dead… 

along comes another desktop app.

Everything is moving to the cloud! Everything is going online!  At least, that is what they’re telling you.  And, to a certain extent, it is true that a lot of things are moving to the cloud; just not everything.  And some of what has moved in is moving right back out.  Use of the cloud and cloud services is increasing, but that certainly isn’t proving that the desktop is going away anytime soon.  The only thing we can be certain of is that things are going to continue to change fairly rapidly, yet the lion’s share of business users will retain working models they have come to trust and rely upon until they are forced to do something else. Today, many accounting and business professionals feel that they are being forced out of the software they have known and worked with for years: QuickBooks desktop software.

I was recently asked to present to a group of accounting and tax professionals, the topic being “alternatives to QuickBooks Online”.  I thought it was interesting that this would be a topic of such interest, as QuickBooks has long been recognized as the market leading application for small business bookkeeping and accounting.  Accountants and bookkeepers, as well as tax professionals, have worked with QuickBooks for years – many having even styled their practices around the QuickBooks brand and offering QuickBooks-specific training and other services.  Why are these professionals now asking to learn about alternatives?  Well, it is an alternative to the online version of QuickBooks that these folks are seeking, and they have been given the impression that the desktop editions of their beloved QuickBooks are no more and their businesses are being forced to change.

Due to Intuit’s focus on promotion of the QuickBooks Online edition as THE  QuickBooks to buy, there is a growing belief that the desktop products are going away.  Many professionals who have worked with the product line for years are now operating under a belief that their only future with QuickBooks is with the online edition, so they are searching for alternatives for their clients and their own practices.  The QuickBooks Desktop editions aren’t being eliminated (2016 editions and certifications coming!), but any real mention of them in the direct marketing is gone, because Intuit isn’t pushing these solutions to new customers. It is no wonder the accounting and tax pros are looking at alternatives – and their customers are, too.

QuickBooks has always been a direct-to-consumer solution and was pretty much the only thing a small business owner would find if they shopped for software at the local computer or office supply store. The high-value desktop editions continue to be available, but it is difficult to tell a business owner they need to purchase licensing and then pay for mobility for QuickBooks desktop editions while QBO sounds much cheaper and they can get it on their tablet or PC for that cheap price. Also, there is more shopping online – from phones and tablets as well as PCs – so consumers are being exposed to other brands and the plethora of new online solutions. Now that they are considering buying or changing accounting/bookkeeping software… they could just as easily elect to use something completely free and not spend anything with Intuit or anybody else.

The small business owner isn’t focusing on the qualities of the accounting solution or how it impacts their accounting professional’s processes – they are focusing on monthly price of the solution.  Accounting professionals are now recognizing that the software isn’t (or shouldn’t be) the basis for their practices, it is simply a tool.  And there are a LOT of tools available to work with, not just QuickBooks, so the value of aligning solely with that solution is perhaps not as good an idea as it once was, but it is not gone.  There is still a tremendous volume of work to be done with businesses using the QB desktop products – you just wouldn’t know it from the marketing hype around QBO.

The thrill of exploring SaaS (software-as-a-service) and online application models has introduced new competition in markets where the dominant player once felt secure (small business accounting, for example).  While Intuit’s QuickBooks products were a defacto standard and essentially owned the smb accounting market, the diminished response to the QBO product has created opportunity for many newcomers.  Xero, for example, has been able to make great progress, even recruiting long-standing QB ProAdvisors as Xero advisors and promoters.  gnuCash, once a bit of an outlier, is getting new business because it IS desktop based (some people like that!) yet it doesn’t require an an ongoing commitment to internet connectivity or to pay fees to the developer. NolaPro, Wave, Freshbooks and more are growing in popularity as more freelancers and small business owners begin using applications other than spreadsheets to manage their business finances.  The generation that grew up with online banking is now readily adopting computerized bookkeeping, but they aren’t necessarily interested in QBO.  Still, a great many move to QuickBooks desktop editions because QBD is a recognized and respected solution.

It also remains to be seen what happens with usage of some of these online smb accounting solutions when the business reaches some size or complexity.  While they may be highly useful for startup or freelance business, many are not likely to satisfy business requirements far into the business lifecycle.  This is when the going concern and growing business demands more functionality and performance, which often becomes the catalyst for seeking faster and more powerful software and systems and has been a driving force for businesses returning to locally-installed or hosted accounting and ERP solutions.  Along with QuickBooks desktop editions, Sage is positioned extremely well here. The Sage 50 solutions (good old Peachtree!) can scale and also have very strong accounting functionality.  These were actually the preferred solutions for most accounting pros for a time, but the momentum of QuickBooks pushed them to the side.  With the attempt to now leverage the QB user base to the QB Online solution, Intuit has created the opportunity for Sage to regain a position with accounting professionals and their clients who demand more.

As these software and systems have (in some part) migrated from the local infrastructure to the web, we have also seen a lot of hybrid or “tweener” approaches come about.  These approaches, just as cloud service of any type, come in many varieties and exist to solve different problems.  The problem of browser-based functionality and modality is among the issues identified with QBO.  The browser-based app doesn’t allow for multiple operating windows – you have to use browser functionality for that.  And it is relatively slow – performing data updates and screen refreshes like with a website and not as one would require of a business application.  The solution provided is a great example of a hybrid approach.  The desktop app for QuickBooks Online (yeah) is a software app that comes in a flavor for Windows and Mac, and which provides more of a desktop user experience even though it mimics the interface and connects to the data of QBO.  It is faster, and multiple windows can be used, and more… which are some of the great benefits of running software on the local device and why desktop software is so great a performer.  This hybrid model simply allows for desktop software to work with cloud-stored data and back-end processes, and potentially delivers some of the best of both technology models: cloud and localized.

If you consider how much of the actual QuickBooks desktop product has been turned into web service (payroll, merchant processing, etc), it seems like QuickBooks desktop is already beginning to be a bit of a hybrid approach.  And when QB desktop is run with a hosting service provider, the whole thing becomes available anytime/anywhere.  Hosting is the way to provide the management and mobility aspects of QuickBooks and other desktop software.  The hosting model delivers benefits of cloud service – providing users with all the features and functionality of the desktop solution – and introduces the system management and mobility that is part of the underlying value of a web-based or SaaS application approach.

The real discussion, I believe, is not about the death or  near death of the desktop and locally installed applications – that’s just silly. Even phones are now being touted as possible desktop replacements, as the processing and storage capacity has increased to rival the most useful portables and laptops.  Clearly, devices continue to be more powerful and capable, and these advancements aren’t done solely to make web browsing more enjoyable.

pendulumDevices are more powerful so that they can run more applications – fast – and deliver more useful functionality to the user. Maybe the data will be in a cloud, and maybe even some app functionality will be delivered via a cloud, but it is very unlikely that everything will be in the cloud.  Complexity and cost drove developers to seek out alternatives, and advancements in technology will introduce new options that change everyone’s thinking again.  While the pendulum did swing to one extreme (move it all to the cloud and off the device!), we are now seeing it swing back  in the other direction a bit and those who didn’t swing all the way the first time are in a position to reap some benefit.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

 

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Confused about QuickBooks and the Cloud? Join the club

cloud-computingIn most regions around the country high-speed broadband is readily available, and using the Internet for working and playing online is a part of everyday life.  Facebook and Twitter and Instagram are household names and just about every conversation starts or ends with a reference to a meme.  It seems that everyone is connected and app-savvy, using high technology while doing business, doing homework, or doing just about anything.  Yet this move to online and cloud technologies has come with a high price tag for some businesses, especially small businesses trying to keep up with the pace of change and who are being encouraged to adopt just about every new thing that comes their way.  It’ll make them more efficient, more profitable, more attractive to customers, more interesting to prospects, and will allow them to do more in less time.  All of the “apps” for this and that have created a great deal of confusion for the average small business owner who may need a few tools to help get business done, and who is now facing the daunting task of figuring out which ones to use as the type and number of tools grows exponentially every day.  It used to be so simple, but now even the simple things are becoming difficult to understand – like QuickBooks, for example.

QuickBooks desktop editions, born from Quicken personal finance management software, continues to be the most popular small business bookkeeping solution available.  Yet QuickBooks is now offered as either desktop application (software you install on your PC), as a hosted solution (software installed and run on service provider systems and which you access via the Internet), or as an online application (QuickBooks online edition).  Initially, the lines were fairly clearly drawn – the desktop software gets installed on the local machine and the online edition runs from Intuit’s servers.  Then things got a bit more complicated as hosted services rolled out, and users were able to have their desktop QuickBooks managed with a service provider and accessible via an Internet connection.  Now, just to add to the confusion, Intuit delivers a new desktop app to access the online version of QuickBooks.   What?!  Yeah, you heard me.  There’s a desktop app to install to the PC (97MB!) that accesses the QuickBooks online system.

When Intuit, like to many other software companies, began pushing the online-only version of their solution, the messaging was all about making life easier with “no software” to install or manage.  Customers could simply sign up and have all the features and capability they need using only the browser on an Internet-connected machine.  Failing to consider that computing devices (PCs, tablets, phones, et al) continue to get smarter and more powerful each day, the software companies firmly believed that everything would eventually be on the Web, and the “access device” wouldn’t matter any more.  However, things haven’t turned out quite as planned, and users continue to not only demand desktop and device-based apps, they will often forgo the browser-only approach until a better app and interface comes along.  The truth is that the market wants apps and software running on their devices because the user experience and performance is almost always better than with a purely browser-based approach.  Browsers are great for visiting websites, but not so much when it comes to running business applications.  Sure, there are a lot of browser-based solutions out there, but not too many of them are as trusted or as heavily used as their desktop-based counterparts or competitors.

There is little argument to be made regarding the fact that many software developers are working towards entirely online application models, where little or no software would exist on the device and all data is managed and stored online.  What is arguable is whether or not the “fully online” model will ultimately win, or whether software will continue to be installed and maintained on the device.  Performance, functionality, integration with other applications, and usability will all influence the buyer’s decision regardless of the marketing hype.  It may simply be that users will have to try each model before they decide which one works best for them.  It seems that, with the introduction of the desktop app for QuickBooks Online, the QuickBooks-users club has voiced an opinion which sounds a lot like they liked the desktop software approach best.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

 

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Formula for Success: The Cloud and a Pair of Bunny Slippers

Formula for Success: The Cloud and a Pair of Bunny Slippers

drawn-bunny-slippersInformation technology and the “cloud” is amazing.  With the right IT resources and connectivity, individuals and small businesses are able to compete at global levels with much larger organizations, and are proving that placing focus and attention on the right aspects of the business helps the business perform better. The right IT approach is to use technology to make the business smarter so more gets done in less time and with fewer resources – this is wearing the bunny slippers.  The goal is leveraging systems, software and connectivity to be more efficient and effective, creating the time to stop and think for a while, innovate, or simply relax.

Too often the business owners or managers are tending to computers and systems which simply support status quo and aren’t spending their quality time growing and managing the business – getting more clients, creating new products, rising above the competition. Cloud computing models play a big part in changing that standard, supporting new levels of business sustainability and supporting process improvements never before imagined.

Cloud computing is now integral to many business technology models because the potential benefits are great.  Cloud computing solutions and outsourced information technology management allow businesses to focus on what they do best, and  not on the IT supporting it. These solutions and services are in high demand because they allow businesses to scale easily and affordably, paying only for what is needed at the time.  Improved collaboration and centralized access to applications and data make cloud computing models an important consideration for every business.

I’m not the only one who recognizes how beneficial the right IT approach and anytime/anywhere access can be. Others have recognized the freedom and flexibility these new technology models have enabled… and know the value of a pair of bunny slippers.

Joanie Mann Bunny FeetMake Sense?

J

Doing Business In Bunny Slippers Around The Globe.

Susan Solovic

When I first started my business, like many start-up operations, I decided to work from home.

I equipped an empty bedroom with a card table for a desk, cardboard boxes for filing cabinets and my dogs served as my office assistants. Voila! I was ready to roll, and it was great.

I could go to work in my fuzzy pink robe and bunny slippers. After all, no one other than the dogs would know.

Start-up business operations are always strapped for cash. It’s much less expensive to conduct business from your home than to rent commercial office space. And thanks to the Internet and technology home-based businesses can easily become international enterprises.

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/startups/doing-business-in-bunny-slippers-around-the-globe-01252506