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Spreadsheets are the most under-utilized technology tool on the planet right now (6/9/2017) . The fact that they are not mandatory learning for all elementary, middle school and high school students is mind-blowing. The fact that many are graduating from 2 and 4 year colleges without spreadsheet skills is criminal.
In Western Society each of us as individuals can in fact be modeled as a small business. Small businesses have revenue needs, expenses, and a desire for money left over after paying expenses. Small Businesses have tax responsibilities and they have "other needs". So whether you are reading this as a part of 220 Club related curriculum for Small Business owners, pre-reading for ZAP Accounting Software Licensing or if you came to this otherwise, this is all applicable to you.
The goal of this website is to dramatically broaden awareness to spreadsheets and their applications with minimal time invested. The first applied use we'll cover is related to using spreadsheets for To-Do list management and list management in general -- an applied use of spreadsheets that few associate with spreadsheets and something everyone can benefit from -- and when you combine to-do lists in spreadsheets with cloud based spreadsheets as implemented in Google Sheets, you end up with one bad-ass system for organizational management that will end the run of a lot of small apps targeting personal organization and efficiency.
So just how important are spreadsheets to a Small Business?
Great question...
In Western Society each of us as individuals can in fact be modeled as a small business. Small businesses have revenue needs, expenses, and a desire for money left over after paying expenses. Small Businesses have tax responsibilities and they have "other needs". So whether you are reading this as a part of 220 Club related curriculum for Small Business owners, pre-reading for ZAP Accounting Software Licensing or if you came to this otherwise, this is all applicable to you.
The goal of this website is to dramatically broaden awareness to spreadsheets and their applications with minimal time invested. The first applied use we'll cover is related to using spreadsheets for To-Do list management and list management in general -- an applied use of spreadsheets that few associate with spreadsheets and something everyone can benefit from -- and when you combine to-do lists in spreadsheets with cloud based spreadsheets as implemented in Google Sheets, you end up with one bad-ass system for organizational management that will end the run of a lot of small apps targeting personal organization and efficiency.
So just how important are spreadsheets to a Small Business?
Great question...
=== Case Study #1 ===
Acupuncturist with a Clinical Nutrition Practice
From 2014 through 2017 we slowly automated and organized the office of an Acupuncturist who currently does about $15,000 per month in sales.
This Acupuncturist schedules both Acupuncture and Clinical Nutrition appointments and he stocks small quantities of over 300 nutritional and herbal products, so he runs a fairly complex business for a Sole Practitioner operating without employees. New patient visits run $125 to 160. Acupuncture treatments range between $60 and $85 per visit. Nutritional appointments are only $35/visit, but with supplement sales, the visits typically run $80 to $125. Put this all together and his average sale is $85/transaction with a gross profit of $65/transaction.
When we started working together...
This Acupuncturist never had a solid, foundational understanding of small business and as he grew, he lost control of all aspects of his business, and that affected his personal life too, as you should imagine.
This Acupuncturist schedules both Acupuncture and Clinical Nutrition appointments and he stocks small quantities of over 300 nutritional and herbal products, so he runs a fairly complex business for a Sole Practitioner operating without employees. New patient visits run $125 to 160. Acupuncture treatments range between $60 and $85 per visit. Nutritional appointments are only $35/visit, but with supplement sales, the visits typically run $80 to $125. Put this all together and his average sale is $85/transaction with a gross profit of $65/transaction.
When we started working together...
- He had one computer in his office and he sucked at computing.
- He used a paper calendar and he failed to block out time for longer appointments. Start times were all that was recorded.
- He had a full-time office support person, he had a landline telephone and a landline fax machine.
- His office support person and prior contract bookkeepers and consultants had decided he needed to be all-in with Quickbooks (accounting, credit card processing, point of sale).
- His baseline monthly fees for Quickbooks related services alone was approximately $55/month, but far more problematically, was the fact that he couldn't perform a simple check out process if his office support was absent
- He did not use any other type of practice management software for digital records of any kind (which typically runs $70-120/month).
- His sole computer was dying and there was no proper data back systems in place
- His digital files were a total train wreck
- His storage systems and inventory systems were woefully inadequate
- The operational flow was poor due to a lack of control in all the other areas
- He had a website, but none of the links worked and he had lost contact with the designer
- He was having a horrid time starting and ending appointments on time
- His insurance billing and subsequent collection process was horrific
This Acupuncturist never had a solid, foundational understanding of small business and as he grew, he lost control of all aspects of his business, and that affected his personal life too, as you should imagine.
Fast-forward 3 years...
So what does all this have to do with spreadsheets and Google Sheets you might ask?
When we started working together he wasn't using a single spreadsheet....
Here's what his digital library looks like now...
- He no longer has any employees. His office phone is a dedicated smart phone. He has a virtual fax server.
- He is doing approximately $15,000/month in sales (which is double what he was doing prior with a full time assistant)
- He works out of two offices.
- He has 5 workstations (PC's, Macs and Chromebooks) and he can use them all to a reasonably high level of proficiency, primarily because he uses all Google Cloud products for basic business tools (email, contacts and calendar) and the remaining business systems are all built with Google Sheets and hosted on Google Drive (along with all of his digital documents).
- His "simple" Weebly website is editable by him or others with minimal skills.
- He serves his office intake forms on his website directly from google drive, so no downloading of pdfs and uploading to a website. As an added benefit, because he uses a chrome browser and because he logs into that chrome browser, he can actually modify his office intake form (a google doc) via the front end of his Weebly website. Read that again if you didn't follow that, because it's powerful.
- For those patients who are insurance patients he has placed some preliminary onus on them for verification requests and it has engaged them in the insurance process to the benefit of all. At the same time, he has come up to speed on both Office Ally and Availity, the two general free tools for insurance processing available to Health Care providers, and he can digitally file all of his insurance claims in a matter of minutes. He also has learned how to decipher and disposition all EOBs that arrive in his office (the hard part), and he has learned the techniques and vocabulary needed to trouble shoot errant EOBs (the very hard part).
- And... and.. and... the list of changes is very, very long..
So what does all this have to do with spreadsheets and Google Sheets you might ask?
When we started working together he wasn't using a single spreadsheet....
Here's what his digital library looks like now...
- 40 spreadsheet files with an average of 5 tabs per spreadsheet (200 worksheets in total)
- 13 word processing documents with an average of 2 pages per document (20 pages of word processing documents in total)
- 9 pdfs (mostly single page documents)
If you are not a spreadsheet user, you might feel a little intimidated right now. If so, don't. The order of events is crawl, stand, walk, run, and with spreadsheets, that can all happen within a very, very short period of time (with a short period of time being in hours of proper instruction). Learning to use spreadsheets is different than learning to create them for your needs, and that is different from learning to automate them to mimic database systems. Your first goal and the only goal you may need to achieve is to learn how to use them, as templates, designers and consultants can be sourced fairly easily for more complex needs. Learning how to drive a car is not hard. Learning how to maintain a car is more complex, learning how to build a car is more complex -- learn how to drive first.
This spreadsheet count seems high yes? - but that's a good thing. If you use cloud based, software-as-a-service database systems for some part of your business, and if you use Quickbooks or some other accounting software, remember that we have converted all of those needs over to spreadsheets -- so what you are doing in those other fee based systems he is doing in spreadsheets for low to no cost. The takeaway here is if you are using database tools that work for you, but you aren't using any spreadsheets right now, there may only be 5-10 spreadsheet templates/applications that you should really consider adding to your digital office -- but the bigger takeaway is that you may want to reconsider all of your paid database services.
This spreadsheet count seems high yes? - but that's a good thing. If you use cloud based, software-as-a-service database systems for some part of your business, and if you use Quickbooks or some other accounting software, remember that we have converted all of those needs over to spreadsheets -- so what you are doing in those other fee based systems he is doing in spreadsheets for low to no cost. The takeaway here is if you are using database tools that work for you, but you aren't using any spreadsheets right now, there may only be 5-10 spreadsheet templates/applications that you should really consider adding to your digital office -- but the bigger takeaway is that you may want to reconsider all of your paid database services.
His custom Business Systems Modules are built in Google Sheets to meet his specific needs, and they include:
Without using spreadsheets, he'd be lacking 85% of the digital files needed to run his business efficiently, and if you aren't using spreadsheets for work at all, we'd really wonder exactly how it is you are doing the things that you should be doing on a daily and weekly basis to run your business!??! No systems built by others are ever complete. Spreadsheets are always needed to fill in digital cracks.
- A Customer Management system
- A Product Management system
- A Point of Sale system
- A Nutritional Evaluation Tracking System
- A SOAP Notes system (A medical records database system that is HIPPAA complient )
- An Insurance submission tracking system
- An Accounts receivable system for insurance balances with invoice ability
- An Accounts receivable system for non-insurance
- A system for printing and tracking SuperBills
- A system for tracking package sales
- A system for tracking Worker's Compensation cases
- A full bookkeeping/accounting System (in lu of quickbooks)
- A check deposit preparation and logging system
- and more...
- He was setup with fully manual business processes and paper forms for each and every office function prior to getting converted over to the automated versions of things. He has a day-end and a week-end close out process that enables him to digitally close out his week no matter if the data generated each day was fully manual, fully digital or some combination there of.
Without using spreadsheets, he'd be lacking 85% of the digital files needed to run his business efficiently, and if you aren't using spreadsheets for work at all, we'd really wonder exactly how it is you are doing the things that you should be doing on a daily and weekly basis to run your business!??! No systems built by others are ever complete. Spreadsheets are always needed to fill in digital cracks.
Here are some of the benefits of this setup.
- His total monthly subscription cost for ALL of these digital tools and digital systems is $10/month (Google Suite fee for a single user -- there is a lower level service for $5/month which is where he started, but when he passed the 30gb storage mark we upgraded him and this level is good for up to 130 gb. And after that the costs are very minimal for more storage. )
- His primary back up systems are all automatic and built into Google Cloud for his $10/month
- Additional third party back up systems can be added for very affordable costs
- His entire business is available from any internet connected computer -- Google Suite offers two step authentication systems if desired
- He has exited the very invasive and costly "forced upgrade" software paradigm
- He will never be subjected to major software interface changes as is found with commercial database systems
- He will never be subjected to major business process flow changes because software designers needed something to do
- He can build out or add onto his digital tools any way he likes and/or as his own skills or budget allows
- His increased positive cognitive processing and his ability to stay more present at home and while he is away from his office has lead his significant other to believe he got abducted by Aliens who substituted his chaotic mindset with "something else".
- And... and... and...
=== Case Study #2 ===
The Soloprenuer who assisted the Acupuncturist in Case Study #1
The Soloprenuer who assisted the Acupuncturist with his transition has been fully self employed since 2000. Unlike many who are self employed, he's decided not to focus on one particular field of interest. Instead he cobbles together a living every year from a handful of different activities. He is a licensed real estate agent and he is a licensed contractor, but he seldom uses those regularly for income these days and they were in fact originally more for his own use and benefit. He owns a small metal art business but that is not doing much these days. He was involved in rehabbing/renovating homes from 1998 through 2012 and as a result of that work he is an active landlord and he has managed his own vacation rental property(s) for a decade. His passion is web based database programming, and he's made money doing that for others, but his primary interest with that work was/is building business systems for his own use.
If we look at his digital library... here's what we'd find...
So what's the point?
The point is that he's got a lot of experience with all kinds of digital documents, and he's got some thoughts he'd like to share...
If we look at his digital library... here's what we'd find...
- 559 google spread sheets
- 352 excel spreadsheets (xls)
- 68 excel spreadsheets (xlsx)
- 2,269 google docs
- 1564 word documents (doc)
- 142 word documents (docx)
- 21,000 jpg files
- 4,013 png files
- And more...
- this doesn't include nearly 18,000 predominantly hand written code files for web based database systems that would blow some socks off some folks with similar background
So what's the point?
The point is that he's got a lot of experience with all kinds of digital documents, and he's got some thoughts he'd like to share...
- It's his belief that spreadsheets are the single most underutilized tool for organization in small business right now.
- It's his belief that all small business would benefit from the use of cloud based spreadsheets like Google Sheets more so than most of the cloud based database systems being offered at this time.
- It's his belief that there is no better tool for "ToDo" list management and all aspects of List making than a cloud based spreadsheet like Google Sheets
Questions for you...
- Do you know what you don't know regarding the use of spreadsheets for business management and for personal daily management?
- Do you have any clue just how different Google Sheets are from Excel Spreadsheets (hint -- it has to do with web based networking-- Google has it and Microsoft doesn't... and Microsoft never will given the inherent nature of their file architecture).
- Do you understand the true nature of the paradigm shifts transpiring right now with those who have adopted Google Drive and Google sheets as a primary tool in their day to day life (both personal and business)?
- Can you afford to invest minimal time and zero money to dramatically increase your understanding of this new paradigm via this website? Do you realize it is an investment that may increase your digital efficiency by a factors of 5 to 10 with untold ongoing benefits year over year?
Summary
This website was designed to be the intro that everyone needs to spreadsheets and Google sheets,. The curriculum is straight forward and simple.
Once you've worked your way through this, we have several other resources that help tie this into the bigger picture of Small Business Management as well as resources that that pick up technically where this leaves off.
Get some basic insights and then be off in your own direction with regards to additional information.
Once you've worked your way through this, we have several other resources that help tie this into the bigger picture of Small Business Management as well as resources that that pick up technically where this leaves off.
Get some basic insights and then be off in your own direction with regards to additional information.