| |
|
Griff: Greg, before you introduce your guest, tell us about the eBay Developer’s Conference you hosted prior to the eBay Live event in Las Vegas. How did it go?
Greg: It went great, Griff, we had over 800 attendees for two-and-a-half days just prior to eBay Live. We talked about a lot of business issues, technical issues, not only eBay, but PayPal and Skype and it was really a wonderful event and it was a great kickoff to eBay Live.
Griff: Now, before we get to our guest, I did hear one thing. There was a lot of buzz about a particular discussion during the Developer’s Conference. Tell us about it.
Greg: Yes, of course. We were very fortunate to have Pierre speak along with Scott Cook, the founder of Intuit, two of the most well respected businesspeople in the world. And they gave us their thoughts on the industry and some trends that they’re seeing out there and it was really a great culmination for the event, so we were very lucky to have Pierre and Scott there.
Griff: I would have loved to have heard it. Was it recorded in any way?
Greg: It was and should be available at least on iWeb hopefully soon.
Griff: Let’s see if we can get a copy and put it on eBay Radio. Now, we should talk about this particular product that your guest has. Introduce your guest and tell us about the product.
Greg: Sure. I’m very excited to introduce J.P. O’Brien. He’s the CEO of SageFire and we’ve had on guests in the past that talked a lot about the ability to list more things on eBay and track those items, but the one thing we haven’t talked a lot about is how do you actually account at the end of the day how well you’re doing. What’s your profit and what’s your loss and all the stuff that goes around running your business, for example, driving to the post office and the mileage there. So SageFire has built a great product called KeepMore and I wanted to have J.P. talk a little more about it.
Griff: Hi J.P., welcome to eBay Radio. Tell us about your product.
J.P.: Thanks Griff, good to be with you. KeepMore is a simple online accounting tool really built and designed for the small business owner, not necessarily the accountant. And actually I spent about a week in Las Vegas as well with eBay Live and it was great to see, when talking to all the small business owners out there, that most of the folks know and want to be able to track their business, but none of us in the meantime, want to do that by becoming an accountant. So that’s really where KeepMore.net comes in, that’s what we’re focused on is making it really simple for, at the end of the day, folks to be able to know how their business is doing, the profitability of it, without becoming necessarily an accountant to do so.
Griff: Now, J.P. and Greg, while we’re talking about KeepMore, let’s direct people to the website which is keepmore.net. What makes KeepMore.net different from other bookkeeping solutions?
J.P.: Actually our customers fondly refer to us as “accounting for the rest of us” and I guess it’s just because we’ve written it in plain English. We’ve kept out the complex accounting words like “credit” and “debit” and kept it in really simple everyday terms, like do the funds go in or out of my business. And what we’re trying to do is make it so that folks, regardless of your business size, can really understand from Day 1, throughout the year and at tax time, how profitable they are. I always like to ask a simple question, but it’s probably a pretty powerful question though for most business owners and maybe your listeners out there. It’s, do you know as of today how profitable your business is? And if the answer is no, then you need to find a system, any system, and obviously we recommend KeepMore, but to be able to give you the tools to be able to understand at tax time how profitable your business is.
Griff: Yeah, it’s important. I know that when we’re talking about business on eBay for sellers we constantly remind people you have to be able to manage your business and if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
J.P.: That’s right.
Griff: So KeepMore.net is a great tool for helping you manage your business. Explain how it works.
J.P.: Well, the numbers don’t lie and here’s our philosophy, we want to get you in and out of there in less than 5 minutes a day. Most of our customers come in first thing in the morning and spend a couple minutes, they plug in all their income and expense, like you mentioned a trip to the post office, maybe purchases at the last estate sale or yard sale, maybe your eBay listing fees, all that information about your business. And a lot of times people don’t recognize that all these little things over time add up very significantly and literally can cost you thousands at tax time if you’re not fully deducting that. So that’s all we’re doing is asking you to come in, post your information, no accounting knowledge needed. KeepMore actually does all the hard part in the backend. They’re actually going to organize and sort all the data for you so at tax time, with one click, you’ve got a Schedule C worksheet or all the different tax forms you need so you can actually print out that report, hand it to your accountant, and you’re done.
Griff: I’m on the website now, KeepMore.net. It’s pretty cool and, of course, you’re an eBay certified solution provider, which means you’re a member of the developer’s team. I assume that this is somewhat integrated into eBay to make it easier for the seller.
J.P.: Yeah, we actually worked really closely with the developer group, with Greg and his team, and we’re very excited about it. What we’ve done is we can actually import all your eBay bought or sold items across multiple user ID’s. So that now gives you the power to, with a few clicks, be able to see your entire eBay business itemized out by products sold versus shipping costs versus fees and be able to see that all reported out for you. The knowledge is really the power that we’re giving at the end of the day.
Griff: Now, Greg, I notice when I’m searching through the directory that there’s not a lot of folks like J.P. offering this kind of product. Is this kind of a new service on the directory?
Greg: Well I think what you’re seeing is some of the other companies out there that provide listing management are trying to provide functionality to give sellers more insight into their businesses. So it is in the area that I’d say a lot of companies certainly do today, but as we want our sellers to be smarter and more effective I would expect more and more functionality like this to be available. But having said that, what J.P. and his team have built is pretty unique and not easy to replicate. So we’re very excited about this solution they’ve put together.
Griff: Yeah, I have to say, J.P., looking through the site, you guys have really got this nailed. I love the fact, and I like the fact that you point this out too, that this is an online system so that you don’t have to worry about managing your data on your computer. It all happens up on the KeepMore.net servers.
J.P.: You know, the best part about eBay is they understand the power of online. There’s no software to install or download or maintain. You have access to it from anywhere anytime. But the best part is it doesn’t matter if you have a coffee spill or a virus that corrupts your hard drive, you’re never going to lose that data. And as business owners we’ve got to keep that data by law for the current year plus three prior. So the online benefit of that, and obviously where we’re all moving toward over the internet, that’s one of the benefits of KeepMore.
Griff: Now how much does this service cost?
J.P.: Well, we like to say it pays for itself. And actually one of our folks at eBay pointed out that she was thinking about signing up and she said, how much is it, and I said, it’s $19.95 a month, and she said, so, if I just tracked 40 miles this year or this month it will pay for itself. And I said, that’s right. So that’s the power of this. It’s $19.95 a month or $199 a year, and actually we have a special for you Griff here for the show and your listeners. At eBay Live we launched a $100 savings, basically 50% off the annual price, so it’s only $99 for twelve months and we’re going to extend that for the show today.
Griff: Oh, can I sign up for that?
J.P.: Yeah, please do.
Griff: Yeah, I think I’m going to sign up for this. Greg, I’ve looked at a lot of the applications that are out there and I even have used eBay’s own Accounting Assistant and it’s pretty good, but I love the fact that this seems to be really robust and I love the testimonials. You can read them on the site at keepmore.net.
Lee: There’s a demo too.
Griff: And there’s a demo, yeah, and you can try it out, which I’ve just gone through. It’s pretty cool. So, yeah, I’m going to sign up for this. I know that the proof is always in the pudding and you have some testimonials on here. Do you have a few real-life examples about how people can be more profitable with KeepMore.net?
J.P.: Yeah, I’ve got plenty. The first one is probably the most obvious which is just stop overpaying the IRS. Actually there were some studies recently done by the Small Business Administration that showed that small home-based business owners overpay the IRS to the tune of a couple thousand dollars every year.
Griff: That is probably the best tip you can give. Don’t overpay when you don’t have to.
J.P.: Don’t overpay, that’s right.
Griff: And I know some people have no idea the savings they can get. So check out this product, KeepMore.net. J.P., thanks for joining us.
J.P.: It was a pleasure, thank you.
Griff: J.P. O’Brien, CEO of KeepMore.net. And Greg, thank you for bringing us this great guest. Greg Isaacs is our director of eBay Developer’s Program and our own eBay Radio contributing editor. Thanks guys.
Greg: Thank you.
Griff: This segment has been brought to you by BuySafe.com, helping you create buyer confidence. We’ll be taking your phone calls during our upcoming phone segment at 877-474-3302. And you may have the answer to our trivia question. Find out when we continue here on eBay Radio.
|
