The new year often brings with it renewed focus and strategies as business owners take a look at the previous year to see what worked and what didn’t. For many businesses, they will continue to face the question of embracing the Cloud and mobile technology, which is why Dawn Brolin, CPA and Stacy Kildal are hosting their first Small Biz VCon on January 23 -24, 2013. Dawn and Stacy are Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisors, co-founders and co-hosts of the online radio podcast “Radio Free QuickBooks” and were selected as two of CPA Practice Advisor’s “2012 Most Powerful Women in Accounting.”
The Small Biz VCon is designed to help small businesses, regardless of type, learn about and incorporate mobile and web technology into their business. The two-day conference will cover topics such as creating and maintaining attractive websites; managing finances and payroll anywhere, anytime; filing taxes; tracking customers; and increasing productivity and efficiency.
“When people get online and start embracing online products and services, they really can run the business from anywhere,” said Stacy. “It becomes a double-edge sword – you may have to work on vacation. But you can set your work aside and come back to it on your own time. Your clients and customers don’t have to wait the entire time you’re away from the office.”
Author Mike Michalowicz, CEO of Provendus Group, will start the virtual conference with his keynote speech on leveraging technology. Other speakers include presenters from companies such as Method CRM, ScanWriter, Bill.com, Intuit, BillQuick and Transaction Pro Importer. Attendees will also have an opportunity to participate in a Q&A session with vendors during special “Power Hours,” held the end of Day 2 of the VCon.
In addition, Intuit will introduce its latest service, TurboTax CPA Select. TurboTax CPA Select is designed to connect CPAs with small businesses looking for someone to prepare their taxes. The service allows business owners to browse a select group of CPAs, choose a professional and receive an estimate before their taxes are filed.
Sneak peak videos are available on demand for attendees to get a preview of the topics that will be presented at the conference. Registration is not required to view the sneak peak videos and the conference is open to accounting professionals, as well as anybody that owns a small business. Dawn and Stacy plan to help small business owners grow and invest in their business with the virtual conference.
“We really wanted to make this affordable, which is why we worked hard to keep the price under $100,” said Stacy. “We’re also giving 10 percent of the profit back to several randomly picked attendees to invest in the growth of their business. Maybe they can use it to invest in technology for their business.”
Stacy suggests business owners take baby steps when implementing new technology into their business. Instead of trying to implement every social media site or mobile technology all at once, businesses should start with creating a sound website and branching out from there.
“It’s important for business owners to understand that if they are not mobile in some way, their customers will find somebody who is,” said Stacy. “Customers want customer service pretty much immediately. They don’t want to have to wait for you to get in the office. If you are not using modern technology and you are not online, you are going to be left behind.”
Registration is now open for the Small Biz VCon and is limited to the first 1,000 attendees. Due to the popular response the VCon has already received, additional ones are scheduled throughout the year. Those who attend the VCon in January will be given membership to view recordings of the sessions following the conference and will also receive a discounted registration rate for the additional VCons scheduled this year.
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Tags: Technology
