The Emerging Software Ecosystem For Running Small Businesses

Besides selling their products and services, small business owners also have The top Home organizer software to balance budgets, keep track of accounts receivable, run payroll, pay taxes, and manage a myriad of other unsexy tasks behind the scenes. Recognizing the pains associated with running a business, companies like Square, Xero, Bill.com, Freshbooks, Expensify and ZenPayroll (disclosure: my company) are applying the principles of modern software to design and deliver beautiful solutions that make it easier to take care of these critical responsibilities. As a result, startups and small businesses alike have adopted modern software in droves. But what does modern software mean for small businesses? There are a couple key ingredients that many of these software companies are leveraging and their product philosophy is driven by a deep empathy for the user and solving their problem. These ingredients are: beautiful design, ease of use, mobile accessibility and APIs. 1. Appealing design can and should involve interfaces that naturally please the eye, such as the minimalist interface for Square Cash. 2. However, the visuals must be married with a keen focus on user experience. In other words, the application should be so intuitive that its hard for people to make mistakes. Philip Fierlinger, Head of Design at Xero, has shared intriguing ideas on how to improve the UX of money , for example. Nobody wants to make mistakes with money. 3. Mobile devices have already become staples in our personal lives. It makes sense for people to manage business on-the-go as well, tracking expenses with Expensify or accepting payments with Square. 4. Good-looking apps arent useful unless they work with each other. As Y Combinator Partner Garry Tan put it, the API-ization of everything is upon us. While payroll has historically been a silo, ZenPayroll recently launched an API (short for application programming interface) that made it into a distributed, integrated layer.