Study Shows Better Quality of Life, Better Relationships for 'Mom & Pop' Business Owners Who Use Online Business Management Tools

Did you know that National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day is Friday, March 29? In conjunction with the annual event and to help recognize mom-and-pop businesses everywhere, PlanetSoho is reminding Americans to celebrate the couples who work and live together.

There are apparently some pretty good reasons for small business owners to celebrate, too, particularly couples who co-run a business. The company, which makes online management tools and services for small office / home office businesses (SOHOs), recently conducted a survey of their users that suggests that automating many of their business processes using online systems can help them gain a better balance between business and love.

Notable survey results:

14% are having sex more often
45% are spending more time with their family and friends
25% are laughing more
20% are going on vacation more often

Now, who can argue with those numbers?

PlanetSoho serves more than 1 million businesses around the world, and is one of a growing number of companies providing online solutions to SOHO businesses. In the United States alone, there are an estimated 25 million such businesses, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data. These numbers combine businesses with no reported employees and those with up to 4 employees.

“Today’s mom-and-pop businesses don’t look like they did a decade or two ago,” said PlanetSoho CEO Ron Daniel. “They are young entrepreneurial couples who run profitable businesses out of their own home while raising the kids and living social lives.”

Daniels also said that with online and cloud-based technologies for business management, such as the services that his company offers, small business owners can automate many of their day-to-day processes. The services also help them with marketing, “… and helps them get them paid. More than one million small office / home office workers are striking a balance between career and personal life because we’re enabling them to turn their hobbies into a career.”

“We honor the mom and pop tradition, which has played a major role in building the American economy,” Daniel told CPA Practice Advisor. “The financial requirements for doing business – even from home – in today’s far more complex and often global environments – are more challenging than ever before. We’ve designed our PlanetSoho platform to help today’s mom and pops be able to manage their business in a way that makes their financial records “accountant ready” at tax time, and anytime they seek business advice.”

Across the country, small businesses like Atlanta-based Gwynnis Mosby Makeup Academy are using such tools. Owners Gwynnis and Phillip Mosby have more than 30 years of experience as a professional makeup artist for those in the entertainment field, including for celebrities such as Faith Evans, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, and Toni Braxton.

After starting their own business two years ago, they quickly realized they needed help with invoicing and inventory. They discovered PlanetSoho and say it has been instrumental in their success.

“PlanetSoho is a breath of fresh air because we can work together with a limited amount of stress on the relationship,” Phillip Mosby said. “Little things like being able to integrate email contacts and 24-hour live customer service let my wife do what she loves to do, which is makeup. With the aid of PlanetSoho, managing our soho is a breeze!”