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A few weeks ago, we showed you a short preview video focusing on how easy inFlow Inventory Version 2 will be to use.  This week, we are excited to show you another video that demonstrates some of the powerful new feature.

The software has currently gone through the 2nd phase of our 3-phase internal testing.  Once it passes the 3rd phase in a few weeks, we will be ready for the beta-testing period.  If everything goes smoothly during beta-testing, the new version will be released to the public.  Again, the reason why we don’t give out a definite release date is because we want to make sure the quality is top-notch before giving it to you.

And remember, this upgrade will be completely free to all customers with the Standard Edition, even if you purchased over a year ago.  

Thank you once again for all for your support and feedback!

You might’ve heard us talking about what’s coming in the next version of inFlow Inventory. Now, we’re excited to show you a short 2-minute video that will give you a taste of what’s to come.

Most software tries to be either easy-to-use OR powerful. With inFlow, we’re not satisfied unless we get the best of both worlds. In another couple weeks, we’ll show you a second preview video that focuses on some of the more powerful features that’ll be added to Version 2.

We keep being asked, “this looks great, but when is it going to be released?” Well, when it’s ready. Instead of promising a date and rushing things out, we want to make sure everything is top-notch quality.

This upgrade will be free for ALL existing customers who have purchased inFlow Standard Edition, even if it was over a year ago!

Today, the editors from CNET download.com decided to do a review of our beloved inFlow Inventory Software.


The verdict?

“inFlow’s many options may not find use in every type of business, but this versatile program can be tailored to nearly any small business. We highly recommend this download for its ease of use, numerous options and free download.”

- CNET staff, May 8, 2009


We love you too, CNET!

Compare these two sentences:

“In the author’s opinion, it is in most peoples’ best interests when excessive verbiage is avoided by people who are engaged in the act of writing.”

“Don’t fluff up your writing.”

They say the same thing, but the second one is much more direct and memorable.

Whether you’re writing website content, instructions, or an important email - every word costs your readers time and energy.  If it doesn’t pay off quickly, you will quickly lose their attention and potential business.

Pack a lot of content into a few words.

If you’re not convinced, here are some illuminating resources:
- Mark Twain said “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
- Google cuts words mercilessly.
- If you add 100 words to your website, people will read less than 20 of them.
- A book On Writing Well

Everyone knows about globalization nowadays.  Developing countries like China and India are known for their cheap exports.  If you go to Wal-Mart and pick a random item off the shelf, chances are it’s made in a developing country.

Big enterprises have a vast network of foreign suppliers and professional purchasers to take advantage of the cheap importing opportunities.  As a small business owner, it might be difficult for you to find good and reliable foreign suppliers.  The good news is that the internet helps level the playing field.

Alibaba is an online business-to-business platform connecting buyers and suppliers, with an emphasis on suppliers from developing countries.  You can search by products, prices, countries, or even special deals.  If eBay is the trading place between consumers, then Alibaba is the trading place between businesses.

If you are curious as to whether you can raise your profit margins by finding cheaper suppliers, Alibaba might be a good starting point.

Most small businesses these days have a website up to share information and attract new customers.  If you don’t, you might want to consider getting one designed.

If you already have one, have you ever wondered what kind of people are visiting it?  Where are they from?  What do they click?  How did they get there?  How many come back?  Answering these questions helps you understand how people interact with your website, so you can improve on weak points and promote your selling points better.  Luckily, there are free tools online that can help you track how people use your website.

Google Analytics gives you detailed information on how your users browse your site.  It can tell you what time of the day you get the most traffic, which countries the users from, which page is the most viewed, etc.  The nice thing about it is that the graphs are all interactive, allowing you to drill down to find the exact information you want.

Quantcast shows you the demographics of your users.  Information like the age group, average household income, the gender percentage, etc.  How could you target your marketing message better if you found out that most of your visitors were women over 50?

Using these tools is very easy if you already have a website.  Simply sign-up for a free account, and follow their instructions to attach a small piece of HTML code on your website.  You might be surprised by how your website is being used.  We know we were when we saw Malaysia in the top 10 countries visiting us.  Time to go international, anyone?

Using barcodes to enter products can be quicker and more accurate than manually typing in item codes. If your products already have barcodes on them, then all you really need is a barcode scanner and some software. If not, you can first make your own barcodes.

If your products are going to be sold in other retail stores, you’ll need to use standardized formats and pay to make sure your barcodes are unique. We won’t cover that in this article, but you can find more information here.

Otherwise, if the barcodes are just for your business’ own use, it’s pretty easy to print them yourself. Barcodes are just a special way of writing letters and numbers so that a scanner can read them. You can make up your own letter/number codes (e.g. ABC1234) for each of your products. Then, use some software like IDAutomation’s free version of their barcode label printing software to print them as barcodes onto some sticky address labels, like those Avery sells in office supply stores. You can then peel them off and stick them onto your products, and you’re all set.

If you want to print barcodes directly onto your packaging or other materials, you can instead get a barcode font and use that to type barcodes into your designs in Microsoft Word, Publisher, Adobe PageMaker, etc. IDAutomation also offers a free Code 39 barcode font. There are different types of barcode fonts and symbols - Code 39 is the simplest type, but perfect for your company’s own use. Other common types you might come across are UPC-A in North America and EAN-13 in Europe.

Don’t let all the barcoding jargon scare you away - it’s quite easy to get started and you can really speed things up for your business.

Listening to your customers is critical in identifying how your business can improve.  But usually, you only hear from either your greatest fans or the customers having the most trouble.  What do the rest of your more moderate customers think?

An online survey tool can help to gather more feedback and help you organize it to decide how to improve.  You can make your own survey, invite your customers to complete it, and then generate reports with graphs and charts on their responses.  For example, you might find that only 30% of your customers know about your latest product, and decide to improve that by showing it more prominently on your website or sending out a newsletter.  Most of these tools are free to start, but will charge reasonable rates if you have a large number of responses.

Here are 2 of these online survey tools:
- Survey Gizmo
- Survey Monkey

Give it a try today.  What your customers think might just surprise you.